UN Special Rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards, along with other human rights experts, delivered a dossier Thursday to the Russian Federation on sexual torture allegations, detailing the cases of 10 Ukrainian civilians abused in occupied regions of Ukraine, including Kherson, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.

Edwards commented: “These separate allegations, capturing the experiences of four women and six men, are truly grisly.” She noted that the allegations indicated merely a fraction of a wider and systematic pattern of torture inflicted on the civilians in occupied areas.

The experts described the repeated use of electric shocks to detainees’ genitals, as well as beatings, blindfolding, simulated drownings, and mock executions. Moreover, they said that the sexual assaults, including rapes, threats of rape, and other depraved conduct, pointed towards a standardized routine in occupied Ukraine. Edwards added: “Russia appears to have abandoned the international rulebook entirely. It is high time that they were held to account for these unlawful practices.”

According to the experts, torture is used as a deliberate tactic to intimidate and control civilians. The dossier also documented arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, denial of medical care, and deaths in detention. Particularly, one of the women remains detained in Russia, prompting an urgent call for her release.

These latest revelations follow a growing body of evidence documenting the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Last month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia had committed grave violations of international humanitarian law in Ukraine, citing widespread and regular usage of rape by both Russian troops and armed separatists. The court stressed that rape as a weapon of war “is an act of extreme atrocity that amounts to torture.”

Additionally, the report also comes a week after the UN raised alarm over a sharp global increase in conflict-related sexual violence in 2024, noting that more than 4,600 survivors endured abuses used as weapons of war, torture, and political repression. The UN secretary-general urged all parties to prohibit sexual violence and ensure accountability, stressing that state and non-state actors alike continue to employ sexual violence as a tool to secure territory, resources, and control.