GENEVA - UN experts* today warned that Russia's war against Ukraine continues to fuel a deepening human rights crisis both inside Russia, in all areas under its control and its impact internationally. They issued the following joint statement on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the war:
"Four years after Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the strategy of repression at home and aggression abroad has soared as the war remains a source of immense suffering - marked by enforced disappearances of Ukrainian civilians, widespread and systematic torture of civilian detainees and prisoners of war (POWs), killings of civilians and summary executions of POWs, with continuing attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, and dramatically escalating repression to quash any anti-war expression inside Russia. Any discussion of peace that sidelines victims, ignores justice, or excludes Ukraine from meaningful participation is not a path to peace, but an abdication of responsibility toward those most harmed by this war.
The Russian authorities have purposefully converted national security and public safety legislation into instruments of intensifying repression. These laws are arbitrarily applied as part of a strategy to silence dissent and anti-war expression, crush opposition and eliminate any challenge to the war agenda.
Russians who peacefully criticised the war have been charged with 'treason', 'espionage', 'extremism', or 'terrorism'. Writer Boris Akunin, sentenced in absentia to 14 years for 'justifying terrorism' in 2025, was targeted solely for his anti war stance. Others have suffered severe torture, including Svetlana Savelyeva, detained near the Ukrainian border and tortured for two months with beatings, strangulation and electric shocks to force a confession of 'treason'. Poet Artyom Kamardin is serving seven years' imprisonment for publicly reading his anti-war poetry in Moscow in 2022 and was gang-raped by three police officers during his arrest, while his girlfriend was forced to watch it. No criminal investigation was opened and judges routinely refuse to accept testimonies by torture victims across Russia.
Digital repression has intensified, with individuals prosecuted for online searches or private communications perceived as critical of the war. Independent voices from all walks of life have been imprisoned for speaking out against the war. More than 2,000 Russian political prisoners, including human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and anti war activists, remain at grave risk as deaths in custody continue.
The same strategy of repression drives Russia's treatment of Ukrainians, including torture often with direct participation of Russian doctors and medical personnel. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been forcibly disappeared since 2014, particularly after 2022. More than 1,700 remain arbitrarily detained and held incommunicado in Russian prisons - many in critical health and denied access to medical care, food and water leading to death in custody. By February 2026, the bodies of 206 Ukrainians who died in Russian detention, had been returned.
Torture, including rape and sexual violence, is widespread and systematic during interrogation, transfer and detention of Ukrainians. After six years of enforced disappearance, Natalia Vlasova testified that she had been stripped, tied, tortured with electric shocks, raped with a bottle, gang raped by 15 Russian armed men, and had her teeth filed with a metal file; the court refused to investigate. Other Ukrainian detainees described beatings with metal bars, electric shocks to the genitals and mock executions.
We emphasise the continuing suffering of families of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians subjected to enforced disappearance and to summary executions. An absolute priority must be the immediate clarification of the fate and whereabouts of all disappeared persons and the release of those arbitrarily detained. Enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, unlawful killings, and torture constitute crimes against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack.
We further condemn Russia's unprecedented prosecution in absentia on 12 December 2025 of the Prosecutor and judges of the International Criminal Court for issuing arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children - a direct attack on the independence of international justice. These efforts are a flagrant violation of international law and stem from an attempt to avoid accountability.
As the war enters its fifth year, all Ukrainian civilian detainees, all forcibly transferred and deported Ukrainian children, all Ukrainian and Russian POWs, human rights defenders and all political prisoners in Russia must be immediately and unconditionally released, regardless of the status or outcome of any peace talks. Russia must end torture, halt enforced disappearances, rescind repressive legislation, and ensure independent investigations into all unlawful killings, including deaths in custody. These steps are essential foundations for any credible peace process.
Standing in solidarity with the victims of the war against Ukraine means standing for justice. The strategy of repression at home and aggression abroad must be dismantled by the Russian authorities to end impunity and make lasting peace possible."
