UN Says 16,000 Ukrainian Civilians Still Held by Russia, Over 95% of POWs Report Torture

More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians captured during Russia's invasion remain locked up, many held incommunicado on grounds that violate international law, according to Claudia Fuentes Julio, the UN assistant secretary-general for human rights.

Julio delivered the figures at an informal UN Security Council meeting called by Latvia and the United Kingdom this week, spotlighting detainees and prisoners of war nearly four and a half years into Russia's full-scale invasion, according to Euronews and PBS.

The numbers are brutal. Since interviews began, UN human rights staff have talked to 910 released Ukrainian POWs and 403 released civilian detainees. More than 95% of the POWs and 85% of the civilians said they were tortured or ill-treated, often more than once, Julio told the council.

Torture wasn't the only abuse documented. Released detainees reported sexual violence, food deprivation, and inadequate medical care. The UN's Geneva-based human rights office has documented 129 executions of Ukrainian POWs early in captivity and 48 deaths in custody from torture, denied medical treatment, or other inhumane conditions, according to Julio's remarks reported by both Euronews and PBS.

The UN has never been allowed inside Russian detention facilities. Its 16,000 figure is an estimate, and it doesn't even break down how many detainees are adults versus children. The real number and the real conditions could be worse than what's being reported, and there's no independent way to verify it beyond what released prisoners say after the fact.

Survivors testified directly to the council

Two former detainees gave firsthand accounts. Leniie Umerova, a Crimean Tatar human rights activist, described nearly two years as what she called a "political prisoner" of Russia.

Khuan Leyva Garsiya, a Ukrainian soldier born in Mariupol to a Ukrainian mother and Cuban father, held out at the Azovstal steel plant during the 2022 siege before surrendering to Russian forces in May of that year. He spent 1,183 days as a POW, according to PBS. He told the council he weighed 55 kilograms, about 120 pounds, when he was released, and showed a photo of his emaciated body. He said he was tortured and humiliated more than other prisoners because Russian forces suspected something about his background, according to PBS's reporting, though the transcript doesn't specify what.

Russia sits on the Security Council as a permanent member. It heard these testimonies directly.

The war hasn't slowed down

Russia hit Zaporizhzhia with North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles, killing seven civilian steelworkers and injuring 21, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, according to The Guardian and the Inquirer. Three more people, including a 15-year-old boy, died in Dnipropetrovsk from drones and artillery the same day.

Zelenskyy says North Korea is preparing to send up to 50,000 additional troops to reinforce Russia's war effort, on top of the ballistic missiles already flowing under the 2024 partnership agreement Putin signed with Kim Jong Un.

The UN's human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine reported that civilian deaths are climbing fast. In the first six months of 2026, 1,396 civilians died and 7,978 were injured, a 37% jump from the same period in 2025 and more than double the toll from two years earlier. Long-range missile and drone strikes on cities far from the front line drove most of that increase, according to the mission's director, Danielle Bell.

Humanitarian infrastructure is getting hit too. The World Health Organization said a UN warehouse in Dnipro holding roughly $500,000 in emergency medical supplies was struck three times between August 3 and August 7, destroying the building entirely. WHO's regional director, Hans Kluge, called it a direct hit on frontline medical capacity. Since the war began, WHO has recorded 3,149 attacks on healthcare facilities and 240 deaths.

Russia's supreme court, meanwhile, barred Yabloko, the only registered party opposing the war, from September's parliamentary election, according to The Guardian. Zelenskyy says Ukrainian intelligence believes Putin will use that vote as cover to announce a new mobilization wave this autumn.

Latvia and the UK called this Security Council session specifically to force international attention on detainees Russia refuses to let anyone verify. The ask is straightforward: independent access to detention sites, accountability for documented deaths in custody, and pressure through diplomatic channels that, according to the Institute for the Study of War, have essentially fizzled as US attention shifted elsewhere.

None of that access has been granted. Russia has not responded publicly to the specific torture and execution allegations laid out at this week's meeting. Until independent monitors get inside those facilities, the true scope of what's happening to the roughly 16,000 people still held will remain an estimate built from the accounts of those who made it out alive.