Servicemen in Berkut riot police and other Ukrainian law enforcement agencies treated detained Maidan activists brutally in 2014, reads a report from the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT).

The law enforcement officials who were subject to allegations of the ill-treatment of prisoners were almost exclusively members of the now disbanded "Berkut" special police unit and officials of the Interior Troops, reads the report which was released on Tuesday.

The CPT found that the deliberate ill-treatment of "Maidan" protesters by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of law enforcement officials prior to their handover to police convoy officers or investigators, was an accepted means of enforcing law and order during public order operations.

CPT members prepared the report after visiting Ukraine in February 2014.

In addition, the delegation also conducted a number of examinations of two penal colonies in Kharkiv region in September 2014.

The CPT said that the human rights situation in these colonies had been "very disturbing."

"The CPT heard many allegations of severe physical ill-treatment and/or torture of prisoners by prison officers," reads the document.

The CPT urged Ukrainian authorities to conduct an urgent, independent and comprehensive investigation into cases of torture, and to ensure prisoners wouldn't be punished for talking to delegation members.