UN: 16,000+ Ukrainian civilians still detained by Russia, many tortured

On Monday, an informal gathering of the UN Security Council heard testimony that would have been unthinkable in peacetime: more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians remain imprisoned by Russia, many held in isolation and without legal justification. The numbers came from Claudia Fuentes Julio, the UN's assistant secretary-general for human rights, who laid out a catalog of systematic abuse that has persisted across four years of war.

The scale of documented mistreatment is stark. Among the 910 Ukrainian prisoners of war and 403 civilian detainees whom UN personnel have interviewed after their release, more than 95 percent of the soldiers and 85 percent of the civilians reported torture or repeated ill-treatment. The abuse took multiple forms: sexual violence, starvation, denial of medical care, beatings. The UN has also documented 129 executions of Ukrainian prisoners at the start of their captivity and 48 deaths in custody from torture or the conditions of detention itself. These are not allegations. These are documented cases.

The meeting, called by Latvia and the United Kingdom, gave voice to people who had endured this system. Khuan Leyva Garsiya, a Ukrainian soldier born in Mariupol to a Ukrainian mother and a Cuban father, spent 1,183 days as a prisoner of war. When he was released, he weighed 55 kilograms—120 pounds. He brought a photograph to show the council: his own skeletal frame. Garsiya said the Russians had singled him out for harsher treatment, suspecting him of being a foreign mercenary because of his Cuban heritage, or an American spy because he had attended college in the United States. "Russians were outraged that someone with a connection to Cuba, whom they consider an ally, would fight against their occupation army," he told the council. He remains in the Ukrainian military.

Leniie Umerova, a Crimean Tatar human rights activist, described nearly two years as what she called a political prisoner. Both she and Garsiya spoke to the council in person, their presence itself a form of testimony—evidence that people had survived, that the system had released them, that their stories could be told.

The UN has not been permitted to visit Russian detention facilities, which means the actual number of people held is likely higher than 16,000. The organization has no breakdown of how many are children. What it does have is the testimony of those released and the pattern that emerges from their accounts: systematic, widespread, repeated abuse.

When confronted with these findings, Russia's deputy UN ambassador, Maria Zabolotskaya, rejected them outright. She said Russian armed forces comply with international humanitarian law and that it is Ukrainian forces who torture prisoners. She characterized the Security Council meeting itself as a disinformation campaign funded by NATO countries, designed to derail peace negotiations and justify strikes on Russian territory. Ukraine's deputy UN ambassador, Volodymyr Pavlichenko, countered that Russia has shown no willingness to discuss the return of prisoners of war or civilian detainees, including children who have been taken.

The UN did interview Russian and third-country prisoners held by Ukraine—816 Russians and 57 others from more than 45 nations. About half reported torture or ill-treatment, primarily during interrogation in the early stages of captivity. But UN monitors found that once these prisoners arrived in Ukrainian detention facilities, conditions "generally comply with international humanitarian law and have improved since 2022." The distinction matters: documented abuse in one system, documented improvement in another.

What happens next remains unclear. The Security Council cannot act decisively because Russia, as a permanent member, can block any resolution. The 16,000 detained civilians have no mechanism for release. The prisoners of war remain in limbo. And the torture, by the accounts of those who have survived it, continues.