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Russia Today
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Council of Europe ‘alarmed' by reports of draft-related Ukrainian deaths and torture
In his latest update on the situation in Ukraine published this week, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, Michael O'Flaherty, expressed concerns about 'systematic and widespread' abuse committed by Ukrainian draft officials. The commissioner said he'd seen 'alarming' reports that include 'allegations of torture and death during military recruitment.' The official urged Ukraine's authorities to promptly investigate all alleged instances of abuse and take measures to prevent similar violations, including independent oversight of recruitment officials' behavior, he said. O'Flaherty cited a statement by Ukraine's Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmitry Lubinets, who also noted that human rights abuse committed by draft officials was 'systematic and widespread.' The list of these violations includes 'beatings, brutal arrests, denial of access to a lawyer, incommunicado detention, mobilization of people with disabilities and other unacceptable acts,' the report stated. In an April interview with political commentator Ben Shapiro, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky denied that abuse is 'massive,' insisting that it was limited to 'singular cases.' He asserted that the main problem was people evading mobilization through bribes, while neglecting to touch upon allegations of beatings and torture. Ukraine expanded its conscription criteria last year amid heavy battlefield losses, lowering the legal draft age from 27 to 25, while increasing the power of military recruiters. The mobilization campaign, which is overseen by Ukraine's Territorial Centers of Recruitment and Social Support (TCR), has drawn widespread public criticism. Numerous videos circulating online show enlistment officers chasing would-be recruits in the streets, commonly backed by civilian police. Reluctant draftees are sometimes threatened with military-grade weaponry and often beaten, along with any bystanders who attempt to intervene. Earlier this week, a video surfaced online showing an elderly woman trying to prevent military recruiters from detaining her son. The woman was seen clinging to the windshield of a van and screaming. A witness filming the scene claimed the vehicle belonged to military recruiters and that her son was inside. According to the woman soon felt unwell and died in an ambulance. A February report by suggested that 80% of Ukrainians had a negative view of the TCR. Meanwhile, the head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, Andrey Kovalenko stated this week that ordinary citizens were providing the coordinates of local TCR offices to the Russian military.
Russia Today
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russia comments on Krivoy Rog strike
Russia has said that it carried out a missile strike on military personnel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog on Friday evening. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, its target was 'a meeting place of commanders of military units and Western instructors in one of the restaurants.' Up to 85 Ukrainian and foreign soldiers and officers were killed, and up to 20 vehicles were damaged, the MOD said. Ukrainian officials reported that the missile struck a residential area, damaging several apartment blocks. Aleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Krivoy Rog defense council, said that 18 civilians were killed, including nine children, and 56 people were wounded. Dmitry Lubinets, Ukraine's top human rights official, denied that military sites were present in the area. Read more Ukraine commits new ceasefire violations – MOD Russia maintains that it only strikes military targets. Between March 29 and April 4, Moscow conducted seven 'group strikes' on command centers, military airfields, weapons factories, and ammunition depots, the MOD said. The ministry added that Ukraine carried out six attacks on 'the elements of Russia's energy infrastructure' over the last 24 hours, in violation of the moratorium brokered by the US last month. The Ukrainian troops continued shelling civilian targets on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others, Russian officials said.
