The Russians are torturing and abusing the workers of the Zaporizhzhia NPP and residents of the station’s satellite town Enerhodar. Law enforcement agencies and independent researchers, including international journalists collected evidence of human rights violations. The investigation results were published in the report of the Ukrainian non-governmental organization Truth Hounds.
“According to the Mayor of Enerhodar Dmytro Orlov, it is estimated that since March 2022, approximately one thousand (1000) individuals have been detained and tortured or mistreated in this network of torture chambers in Enerhodar. At least one person, a ZNPP staff member named Andriy Honcharuk who worked as a diver at the plant, is confirmed to have been tortured to death,” the investigation states.
The journalists analyzed eyewitness accounts, photographic and documentary evidence, digital evidence, and secondary sources such as reports from human rights organizations, news, and media. The report describes extensive evidence of the Russians’ torture and inhumane treatment of Ukrainians.
Eyewitnesses provided Truth Hounds with clear, unequivocal descriptions of torture and crimes, including aggravated assaults, severe beatings, strangulation, electric shocks, forcing victims to dig their own graves, mock executions, threats to rape victims and their relatives, and holding detainees in overcrowded cells without food, water, and fresh air.
Employees and management of the Russian Rosatom could not be unaware of the criminal actions of the Russian security forces because they were constantly at the station, and also used the premises to kidnap employees. ZNPP employees are abducted from their workplaces, taken to interrogations or tortured by FSB officers, often with the participation of Rosatom representatives.
“Rosatom promotes the most serious violations of international law: torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. All these actions violate the imperative norms of international law,” Truth Hounds says.
The Russian Federation finances Rosatom, analysts emphasize. Without cooperation with Rosatom, the Russian Federation would not be able to operate the ZNPP.
The full text of the investigation can be accessed via the link.
