Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya, a former Ukrainian prisoner of war, recently recounted the extreme torture he suffered during 1,183 days in Russian captivity. His testimony was shared following a United Nations meeting where officials discussed the systematic mistreatment of captives.
The 1,183-day ordeal of Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya
Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya described a regime of brutality designed to break the human spirit, involving daily beatings , electric shocks, and sexual abuse. according to the report, Garsiya was specifically targeted by guards because of his Latino name and Cuban father, leading captors to falsely accuse him of being an American spy and a mercenary.
The conditions described by Garsiya included overcrowded barracks where dysentery was nearly universal among the prisoners . He further detailed the psychological horror of witnessing two friends beaten to death in detention centers located within the Donetsk region, while other captives were left to suffer from starvation and disease.
The 95 per cent torture rate reported by the UN
The testimony of Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya aligns with broader data provided by the United Nations, which found that more than 95 per cent of interviewed Ukrainian prisoners of war reported being ill-treated or tortured. As reported by the UN,over half of these captives experienced sexual violence, including gang rape and electric shocks to the genitals.
The human cost of this system is stark. UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Claudia Fuentes Julio stated that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented the execution of 129 Ukrainian prisoners at the start of their captivity, alongside 48 deaths in custody caused by torture or the denial of medical care.
Kyiv's identification of 300 detention sites
The scale of the Russian detention network is vast, with Oleg Gushin of Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War stating that Kyiv has identified more than 300 detention sites across Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories. While more than 9,000 Ukrainians have been returned through prisoner exchanges, thousands more remain in captivity.
This systemic approach is echoed by Crimean Tatar activist Leniie Umerova, who was released in a 2024 exchange. Umerova described her experience as a "carousel of repression," detailing how she was cycled through seven different detention facilities after being detained while attempting to visit her ill father in Crimea.
Maria Zabolotskaya's 'disinformation' defense
The Russian Federation has categorically denied these allegations. Maria Zabolotskaya, Russia's Deputy UN Representative, characterized the accounts of torture as a "disinformation campaign" and countered by claiming that Russian prisoners held by Ukraine have themselves been subjected to moral and physical abuse.
Ukraine's Chargé d'Affaires, Volodymyr Pavlichenko, has called for increased international pressure to ensure accountability for these actions. The clash in narratives at the UN Security Council highlights the deep diplomatic divide regarding the application of international humanitarian law in the conflict.
The 'fundamentally different scale' of abuse in Ukraine
While the UN acknowledges that abuse occurs on both sides, Claudia Fuentes Julio noted that the scale of mistreatment is not symmetrical.. Around half of the Russian and third-country prisoners interviewed by the UN reported abuse during the initial stages of their captivity, but the UN maintains this is on a "fundamentally different scale" than the systematic torture seen in Russian facilities.
Despite these reports, several critical gaps remain. It is still unclear exactly how many thousands of Ukrainians remain in the 300 identified sites, and the international community has yet to establish a verified mechanism to monitor the current conditions of those still held incommunicado.
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