Russia torturing Ukraine civilians prisoner

 ISW:

Russia is forcibly deporting Ukrainian civilians from occupied Ukraine to Russia while engaging in a deeply systematic and institutionalized policy of torture against Ukrainians held in Russian detention. The Viktoriia Project, a journalism collective comprised of 13 media outlets including the Guardian, Le Monde, and the Washington Post, published an investigation on April 30 detailing Russia’s systematic use of torture against Ukrainian prisoners at 29 identified Russian-run prisons—18 in Russia and 11 in occupied Ukraine.[1] The investigation found that Russia is holding a majority of the 16,000 detained Ukrainian civilians for months or years without any formal charges except the allegation of “opposing the special military operation” at as many as 180 separate sites in occupied Ukraine and Russia, including the prison in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, where Russia tortured and killed Ukrainian investigative journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna (after whom the Viktoriia Project is named).[2] The Viktoriia Project also found that Russia has used 695 separate forms of torture, resulting in multiple fatalities at these facilities. ISW previously reported that Russian agents are likely conducting systematic Soviet-era torture practices, including beatings, humiliation, electric shocks, and dog attacks against Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians detained in occupied territories and Russia.[3] Legal experts told the Viktoriia Project that there is no official crime in the Russian legal code for “opposing the special military operation,” highlighting the apparent illegality of these actions even under Russian domestic law. Russia’s mass imprisonment of Ukrainians on legally dubious grounds likely also violates international legal prohibitions on arbitrary detention and deprivation of liberty and may additionally constitute illegal deportation, as Russia is removing Ukrainians from their homes to Russian-controlled institutions en masse.[4] Russia is a signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits both the forcible transfer/removal and the deportation of occupied populations by the occupying power.[5]

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What this demonstrates is that Ukrainian civilians do not want to be Russians.  It exposes the fact that the Russian Empire has failed to persuade Ukrainians to support Moscow and Putin.  The Russians have also failed to conquer all of Ukraine, and the part they do control is resisting their efforts.  Putin apparently thought that retaking Ukraine would give him a buffer zone from NATO forces.  He not only failed to take all of Ukraine, but the part he has taken does not want to be Russian servants.  Torture is unlikely to be persuasive.