VOA Russian: Victims of Russian torture in Ukraine speak at UN
Voice of America
Ukrainian Lt. Col. Ihor Benzeruk, who survived explosions at the Russian-controlled Olenivka prison two years ago, is pictured in Lyman, Ukraine, July 11, 2024. Though he survived, "this day remains as the day my comrades were executed," he said.
Ukrainians formerly imprisoned by Russia testified at the United Nations this week about the torture they were subjected to in captivity. Ukrainian journalist and activist Maxym Butkevych, who spent more than two years in a Russian prison in an occupied Ukrainian town, described how he was deprived of fresh air and sunlight, subjected to beatings and electric shocks, denied medical assistance and forced to appear in recorded videos under duress.
Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 15, 2025. Family and relatives mourn over the body of Palestinian journalist Ahmed Al-Shayah, covered with a press vest, after he was killed during an Israeli strike the previous night in Khan Yunis, at Nasser Hospital, in the southern Gaza Strip, on January 16, 2025.
A boy looks at the bodies of Palestinians killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip as they are brought for burial at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Jan. 15, 2025. Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Jan. 15, 2025.
A miner is transported on a stretcher by rescue workers after he was rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Jan. 14, 2025. President of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa Mametlwe Sebei, center, chants slogans while joining community members and workers in a protest during the rescue operation to retrieve illegal miners from an abandoned gold mine in South Africa on Jan. 14, 2024. Members of the South African police, patrol as they guard the mine shaft where rescue operations are ongoing as attempts are made to rescue illegal miners who have been underground for months in Stilfontein, South Africa, Jan. 14, 2025. Illegal miners rescued from an abandoned gold mine line up as rescuers and South African Police Service officers record their details and provide assistance in Stilfontein on Jan. 14, 2025.