DISINFO: UN report exposes torture of Russian POWs in Ukraine
SUMMARY
A report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) exposed the torture of Russian POWs in Ukraine. According to it, Ukrainian soldiers have executed at least 26 Russian military personnel since February 2022, while more than half of the Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine were subjected to torture.
RESPONSE
This is a disingenuous distortion of the original report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) mission to Ukraine, titled “42nd Periodic Report on the Human Rights Situation in Ukraine (1 December 2024 to 31 May 2025)”. While the figures quoted in this disinformation story are real, the report shows that the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) at the hands of Russian forces appears to be much worse in scale. By reporting only on the Ukrainian abuses while completely omitting this crucial information, this disinformation story aims to portray Ukraine negatively while presenting Russia as a virtuous actor, in order to justify its brutal and unprovoked invasion of its neighbour.
For example, the report mentions “credible allegations of the execution of 106 Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russian armed forces between late August 2024, when the numbers significantly increased compared to previous periods, and May 2025”, and affirms that “all but three [of a total of 117 Ukrainian POWs] provided detailed accounts of torture and ill-treatment”. This “confirmed previous patterns of widespread and systematic torture and ill treatment”, a statement that the document only applies to Russia’s practices, not Ukraine’s.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Ukraine systematically tortures Russian prisoners, that Russia treats Ukrainian prisoners of war well, that Ukrainian forces burn bodies to cover their crimes, that a UN report on Russian atrocities in Ukraine is not supported by evidence, that Ukraine will build concentration camps for captured Russians, or that Ukraine violates international humanitarian law while Russia respects it.