ECtHR files case against Ukraine over Russian prisoner of war torture

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) started hearing the Reznikov v. Ukraine case in connection with torture that the Russian prisoner of war suffered in Ukraine.

Before the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Denis Reznikov worked as a miner in Donetsk. At the end of 2022, he went to the front as a volunteer. A year and a half later he was captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine near the settlement of Krasnohorivka.

According to Irina Vikhoreva, a human rights activist from Donetsk, the Ukrainian military tortured the Russian serviceman and blackmailed his daughter. The Ukrainians wanted the man's daughter to take photographs of military installations, and promised to stop torturing her father in return. Denis Reznikov's daughter turned to human rights activists for help.

Vikhoreva said that the ECtHR said that they started hearing the Reznikov v. Ukraine process, but, citing Article 39 of the court, they did not notify the Ukrainian government of that.

The information about Reznikov's torture was also sent to the Swiss Foreign Ministry. The topic of prisoners of war will be discussed at the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland on June 15-16.

In March, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a report saying that Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine were subjected to torture.

The document said that the military "provided credible reports of torture or ill-treatment at transit points following their evacuation from the battlefield" between December 2023 and February 2024.

POWs said that they were held in basements, caned, electrocuted and threatened with sexual violence during interrogations.