PGO department's head: Some 75 Ukrainian children suffer from torture by occupiers
The Ukrainian prosecutor's office recorded that 75 Ukrainian children suffered from torture by Russian occupiers during the period of Russia's full-scale aggression, the vast majority of them in the village of Yahidne, Chernihiv region.
In an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, Head of the Department for Protection of Children's Interests and Combating Violence of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Yulia Usenko said the aggressor commits international crimes of various categories against children.
"To date, pretrial investigation agencies and prosecutors document such crimes in over 3,200 criminal proceedings. Of these, murders, mutilations, child abductions, forced displacement, deportation, sexual abuse of children, attacks on institutions for children," she said.
According to Usenko, kidnapping is often accompanied by torture and illegal imprisonment.
"Some 75 children suffered as a result of torture. Of these, 69 were in Yahidne, Chernihiv region. The conditions in which the children were together with adults in the basement of the school, their treatment were equated to torture," the department's head said.
She also said prosecutors recorded isolated cases in Kherson and Kharkiv regions, when children were deprived of their liberty and subjected to torture along with adults.
Usenko said the children suffered because, according to the occupiers, they could transmit information about the movement of Russian equipment and corrective information for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The head of the PGO department said the reports of torture were received after the liberation of the territories, most cases of sexual violence – 13 of them have been recorded today – were also established after the de-occupation.