You're reading: Amnesty International: Captive Russian soldiers were not tortured

Amnesty International has confirmed that the Ukrainian authorities did not torture Russian citizens, members of the Russian General Staff's main intelligence directorate Captain Yevgeny Yerofeyev, and Sergeant Alexander Alexandrov, who were captured in Luhansk region on May 16.

“Our representatives have visited the Russian soldiers. We haven’t
seen any traces of torture or cruel treatment on them over that short
period of time we were communicating with them – it was no longer than
10 minutes in the presence of Ukrainian law enforcement officers,”
Amnesty International investigator Krasimir Yankov said on ICTV on
Monday evening.

“If this hasn’t happened to these people, it does not mean that this does not occur in the east of Ukraine,” he said.

He also praised the Security Service of Ukraine for investigating alleged use of force by Ukraine.

“We are very pleasantly surprised by a positive response from the
Security Service of Ukraine, who has met us halfway. They are open to
cooperation. We are preparing materials we have gathered, in order to
share with them, and they’re ready to investigate [the cases of torture] together with military prosecutors,” he said.

Commenting on the evidence used by Amnesty International to prepare
their report, Yankov said that the testimonies given were by different
people and medical records.

“We do not believe on the say-so [basis]. At least two sources are
used, plus [there is] documentary evidence, evidence published by the
press”, he said.

He admitted that some facts, in particular the alleged detention of
people by Right Sector may be “a fake, a deliberate injection by the
Russian special services.”

“But this does not negate the need to verify these facts,” he added.

Last week, Amnesty International released a report based on the
testimony of prisoners of war in eastern Ukraine, according to which
both sides of the conflict tortured captives, and Russian-backed
militants executed hostages without charge or trial.

“Overwhelming evidence of ongoing war crimes, including torture and
summary killings of prisoners, serve as a stark reminder of the brutal
practices being committed on a near-daily basis in eastern Ukraine’s
conflict,” Amnesty International said in its report on May 22.

“We have also documented summary killings of those held by separatist
groups. It is a war crime to torture or deliberately kill captives
taken during conflict,” reads the report.