Russian Strikes Kill 12 In Ukraine As Kyiv Reports North Korean Missiles

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

KYIV/MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, as Kyiv accused Moscow of using North Korean ballistic missiles in its escalating air campaign.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said North Korean ballistic missiles were among weapons used against the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, where six people were killed and 20 wounded.

Another six people were reported killed and 16 injured in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

The attacks came after Zelenskyy warned that Russia was receiving additional ballistic missiles and military personnel from North Korea, which has become a key supporter of Moscow’s more than four-year invasion.

PRISONERS REPORT TORTURE

Tuesday’s strikes came as former Ukrainian prisoners and officials accused Russia of systematically torturing prisoners of war and civilian detainees, including through beatings, electric shocks and sexual violence.

At an informal United Nations Security Council meeting, former Ukrainian detainee Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya said he endured repeated torture during 1,183 days in Russian captivity and witnessed fellow prisoners suffering severe abuse.

Russia rejected the allegations as part of what Deputy U.N. Representative Maria Zabolotskaya called a “disinformation campaign,” while accusing Ukraine of abusing Russian prisoners.

However, U.N. human rights officials said their monitoring showed widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees held by Russian authorities.

UN CITES WIDESPREAD ABUSE

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Claudia Fuentes Julio said more than 95 percent of interviewed Ukrainian prisoners of war reported torture or ill-treatment, while more than half reported sexual violence.

The U.N. said it had documented the execution of 129 Ukrainian prisoners of war at the beginning of their captivity and the deaths of 48 in custody resulting from torture, denial of medical care or other inhumane conditions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

U.N. monitors have also documented torture and ill-treatment of Russian and third-country prisoners held by Ukraine, but officials said the abuses occurred on a “fundamentally different scale.”

Thousands of Ukrainians are believed to remain in Russian captivity despite prisoner exchanges that have returned more than 9,000 people to Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.

ANTI-WAR CONCERNS IN RUSSIA

However, there were also signs of continuing concern inside Russia about the Kremlin-led invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the ongoing fighting.

Supporters of Yabloko, Russia’s only registered anti-war party, criticized a Supreme Court ruling excluding it from September’s parliamentary elections.

Yabloko, which holds only a handful of regional seats and poses little electoral threat to President Vladimir Putin-backed United Russia, pledged to appeal the ruling.

A post on the Telegram messaging platform in which Yabloko thanked supporters following the court decision had attracted more than 100,000 likes by Tuesday afternoon, suggesting significant interest despite the risks associated with publicly opposing the war in Russia.

The armed conflict, in which estimates suggest combined Russian and Ukrainian military casualties have reached around two million killed, wounded or missing, is still officially described by Moscow as a “special military operation” rather than a full-scale war.

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