Russian troops are castrating Ukrainian prisoners of war

Two young soldiers who narrowly avoided a long spell in a Russian torture camp have claimed that the drunken troops were carrying out the horrific practice using carving knives.

The men, age 25 and 28, were returned to Ukraine in a prisoner swap and spent time with an experienced psychologist to help them through the trauma.

Anzhelika Yatsenko revealed that the men said that their experiences had been "worse than hell", and the pair had been incapable of telling her what had happened for a month.

She knew it was likely that the two men had been tortured, as they had been suicidal. When she eventually heard their awful stories, Yatsenko went to the bathroom and "cried and cried".

One of the victims told her that she had no idea how they managed to survive, as there was "so much blood"; and one explained how the Russian soldiers humiliated them further by saying they were carrying out the punishment to prevent them from having children.

Moscow has denied torturing or mistreating prisoners of war and insists that it does not deliberately target civilians in Ukraine.

Torture allegations have been levelled against both sides in the Ukraine conflict, but a team of United Nations independent experts said that Russian methods appeared to be "state-endorsed".

Alice Jill Edwards, UN special rapporteur on torture, said: "Obeying a superior order or policy direction cannot be invoked as justification for torture, and any individual involved should be promptly investigated and prosecuted by independent authorities."

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