Ukraine Uncovers Children's 'Torture Chambers' in Liberated Territories

Ukrainian authorities have uncovered what seems to be a children's "torture chamber" that was used to house children in Kherson following the liberation of the city from Russian control.

In a statement, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that officials discovered evidence of the chamber through their investigations of the region. The announcement came amid a presentation on human rights abuses committed against Ukrainian civilians.

Children's Torture Chamber

The Wednesday report focused on human rights abuses that were documented against civilian adults and two separate reports on abuses against young kids and soldiers will follow, said Lubinets.

However, the Ukrainian official said that while investigating adult abuse, authorities also uncovered the "torture of children for the first time." Lubinets added that he thought there would be nothing that could be worse than what happened in Bucha and Irpen.

The Ukrainian official described a conversation that he had with a man who claimed that he had been held in one of the Kharkiv chambers for three months. He said that he was tortured with a knife and hot objects, and believed that he was headed for the firing line multiple times, as per Fox News.

The man said that he heard the screams of women and men who were also being tortured 24 hours a day. Lubinet added that in one of the torture chambers, officials found a separate cell where children were being imprisoned.

Lubinets said that people who were being kept inside the chamber described a room next to theirs where they had knowledge that children were being imprisoned. They said that the rooms were what Russian officials referred to as the "children's cell."

According to Yahoo News, the Ukrainian official said that the children in the cell were given drinking water only every other day and almost no food. Furthermore, the kids were subjected to psychological pressure by Russian personnel, who told the children that their parents had "abandoned" them and claimed that they would not return to save their kids.

Russian Abuse in Ukraine

He also said that one boy was imprisoned for allegedly taking a photograph of Russian equipment on his mobile phone. Lubinets said that Moscow's military forces apparently believed that the children were "resisting" the Russian invasion.

The finding comes after Kherson was occupied by Russian forces for several months before the Ukrainian military finally recaptured the region in early November. It was one of Moscow's biggest military defeats amid the invasion.

Some residents who stayed during the Russian control of the city described how they were tortured, remarks that echoed prior allegations made by Ukrainians from liberated territories. On the other hand, Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, was investigating potential evidence of sexual violence in Kherson.

The probe is part of a broader international effort to support overwhelmed Ukrainian authorities as they work to hold Russia accountable for its war crimes during the war. Not long after Russian tanks rolled across the Ukrainian border on Feb. 24, allegations of rape and other abuses were reported across Ukraine, Daily Mail reported.