During the Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present), both Ukrainian and Russian/separatist prisoners of war have suffered several forms of abuse, such as mistreatment, exposure to public curiosity, torture, and even execution.
As of November 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) conducted 159 interviews with prisoners of war held by the Russian and Russian-affiliated forces, and 175 interviews with prisoners of war held by Ukraine. The mission later expressed concern about mistreatment of prisoners of war in the conflict, as it reported that prisoners of war held by both sides had been subject to several forms of abuse.
Ukrainian prisoners of war
Mistreatment of Ukrainian POWs The HRMMU reported that Ukrainian soldiers had their personal belongings stolen during admission into POW camps, and that the prisoners were taken to the camps into overcrowded buses, with little to no access to water and toilets; many were blindfolded with their wrists bound with duct tape in a way that left many with wounds in these areas. The same was reported inside the camps themselves, with many POWs reporting overcrowded cells, as well as a lack of food, hygiene and contact with their families.
An August 2022 report by the Humanitarian Research Lab of the Yale School of Public Health identified 21 filtration camps for Ukrainian "civilians, POWs [prisoners of war], and other personnel" in the vicinity of Donetsk oblast. Imaging of one camp, the Olenivka prison, found two sites of disturbed earth consistent with "potential graves". Kaveh Khoshnood, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health, said: "Incommunicado detention of civilians is more than a violation of international humanitarian law—it represents a threat to the public health of those currently in the custody of Russia and its proxies." Conditions described by freed prisoners include exposure, insufficient access to sanitation, food and water, cramped conditions, electrical shocks and assault.
Journalistic investigations shared by The Guardian in April 2025 suggest that SIZO-2 in Taganrog is one of many torture prisons organised by Russia to hold Ukrainian POWs and civilians without formal charges, communication to people outside of the facility, or access to legal representation.
Humiliation of captured Ukrainian soldiers Videos showing Ukrainian prisoners of war being forced to sing pro-Russian songs or carrying bruises have attracted concerns about their treatment. Dmytro Lubinets, head of the Ukrainian parliament's human rights committee, claimed that Russians forcibly shaved heads of female Ukrainian prisoners.
Captured Ukrainian soldiers with British citizenship were recorded calling for Boris Johnson to arrange for them to be freed in exchange for pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuck. The videos were broadcast separately on Rossiya 24 TV channel, causing MP Robert Jenrick to call the videos a "flagrant breach" of the Third Geneva Convention. A Russian spokeswoman claimed that the Ukrainian prisoners of war with British nationality were being treated humanely, referenced a call by Boris Johnson for British prisoners to be shown mercy and said that in turn the UK should "show mercy" to the Ukrainian citizens by stopping military aid to the Ukrainian government.
Another video circulated showing an interview by pro-Kremlin UK journalist Graham Phillips (former reporter of RT and Zvezda) of Ukrainian war prisoner of British nationality Aiden Aslin. Aslin had served in the Ukrainian army for four years and was captured by the Russian army in Mariupol. In the video he appears in handcuffs with a cut on his forehead, is repeatedly called a "mercenary" rather than an official combatant, and told that his crime is punishable by death. The video was aired on Russian television. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine later expressed worries about the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russian and separatist forces.
Torture of Ukrainian POWs
The vast majority of Ukrainian prisoners who had in the hands of the Russian Federation and Russian-affiliated armed groups reported that they had been interned in dire conditions and subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including beatings, threats, dog attacks, mock executions, as well as electric and positional torture. Several women and male prisoners were threatened with sexual violence and subjected to degrading treatments and enforced nudity. A male prisoner reportedly had been pulled with ropes tied around genitalia; The UN agency also collected information about nine possible cases of death during the "admission procedures" to the internment camps.
On 22 July, Human Rights Watch documented the torture of three Ukrainian prisoners of war, members of the Territorial Defense Forces, and the death of two of them in the occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.
As of 31 July 2022, OHCHR verified that, out of 35 interviewed, 27 Ukrainian prisoners of war had been subjected to torture by Russian and pro-Russian armed forces and policemen. Victims reported being punched, kicked, stabbed, beaten with police batons and wooden hammers, electrocuted with tasers, hung from the arms or legs, threatened with execution or sexual violence, or shot in the legs. One Ukrainian POW reported that he had been tortured with wires attached with his genitalia and nose, he described how the guards would torture POWs not only for obtaining information, but also "just for intimidation and humiliation", some women prisoners reported that they had not been victims of physical torture, but that they would be "tormented by the screams of other prisoners of war being tortured in nearby cells".
Also on 31 July, the OHCHR reported that it had received information about the deaths of two Ukrainian prisoners as a result of torture, one beaten and electrocuted on 9 May at the Melitopol airfield, the other beaten to death at the Volnovakha penal colony near Olenivka, Donetsk region, on 17 April. Eight other deaths were also under investigation.
In March 2023, UN human rights commissioner Volker Türk reported that more than 90% of the Ukrainian POWs interviewed by his office said they had been tortured or ill-treated in penitentiary facilities, which Russia despite several requests did not give UN staff access to. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture said in September 2023 that Russia's use of torture "is not random, aberrant behavior," but "orchestrated as part of state policy to intimidate, instill fear or punish to extract information and confessions".
In March 2024, a report by UN Human Rights Office indicated that 39 of the 60 Ukrainian POWs released during that month said that they had been subject to sexual violence during their internment. In October of that same year, a report by the OHCHR also confirmed the systematic use of different methods of torture against Ukrainian prisoners by Russian soldiers.
In June 2025 media published a photo of a Ukrainian soldier returned as part of prisoner exchange with "Glory to Russia" text burned into the skin on his abdomen while at a Russian hospital. The text was carved using professional surgical instruments, while he was in anesthesia.
In February 2026, journalists at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published an investigation which included private correspondence of the Russian general Roman Demurchiev, which included him boasting to close contacts and other members of the military about executing, torturing, and desecrating bodies of Ukrainian soldiers, including POWs. According to Meduza, the archive also revealed the complicity of Demurchiev's superiors.
Execution of surrendering and captured Ukrainian soldiers At an Arria-formula meeting of the UN Security Council, the US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice Beth Van Schaack said that US authorities have evidence that surrendering Ukrainian soldiers were executed by the Russian army in the Donbas region. A Ukrainian soldier who was shown among prisoners in a Russian video on 20 April, was confirmed dead days later.
Eyewitness accounts and a video filmed by a security camera provide evidence that on 4 March 2022 Russian paratroopers executed at least eight Ukrainian prisoners of war in Bucha.
In March 2024, the UN issued a report saying Russia may have executed more than 30 recently captured Ukrainian POWs over the winter. The UN Human Rights Office verified three incidents in which Russian servicemen executed seven Ukrainian servicemen. In October 2024, following Russian marines from the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade executing nine Ukrainian prisoners, Ukrainian authorities said that Russian forces had executed more than 100 surrendering Ukrainians during the invasion, most of them in 2024. Forbes described the incident as ″the latest in an escalating campaign of terror by Russian troops″. That same month, the EEAS described increasing frequency of Russian executions of Ukrainian prisoners, with at least 177 prisoners dying in Russian captivity since the beginning of the war.
In late January 2025, a video circulated around various social media outlets allegedly showing Russian military personnel executing Ukrainian POWs in an unidentifiable location in Donetsk Oblast. Six Ukrainian soldiers were captured by Russian personnel and were then reportedly disarmed and executed by Russian forces. The Russian personnel recorded the event, and their taunting of the POWs. Each executed soldier was forced to watch, and each where shot in the back. At the start of the video, a seventh Ukrainian soldier is lying motionless on the ground, their fate unknown. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine decried the shooting as an atrocity and forwarded relevant information to international organizations, such as the United Nations and Red Cross, due to the violation of the Geneva Convention. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine also launched an inquiry into the shooting.
On 6 November 2025, a Russian soldier accused of executing a surrendering Ukrainian soldier at point blank range was sentenced to life in prison by a Zaporizhzhia court. The following month, On 5 December, Russian troops reportedly shot and killed a Ukrainian soldier as he was surrendering, leading to a pre-trial war crime investigation by the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office being launched.
As of December 2025, since 24 February 2022, the UN had verified the executions of 96 Ukrainian prisoners, while it found another 119 allegations of executions ″credible″. In the same time frame, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine office had pursued 103 criminal proceedings relating to the killings of 333 Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered or laid down arms. According to Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Center for Civil Liberties and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, executing prisoners of war is one of Russia's tactics in its objective to ″break″ the Ukrainian population. A total of 41 member states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe launched an investigation by experts on the ground in July 2025, and in its report in September 2025, it noted significant difficulties due to Russia's lack of cooperation and transparency, but concluded that several elements indicate that the executions are a regular occurrence.
Castration and murder of a Ukrainian POW in Pryvillia
On 28 July, a video was posted on Russian social media which shows a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian prisoner of war, who is tied up and gagged, with a box cutter. On the next day, a continuation video was posted with possibly the same soldiers where they taped the POW's mouth with black tape, placed his head in front of his cut genitals, and shot him in the head.