Ukraine has initiated more than 3,000 criminal cases regarding Russia’s alleged offenses against children within the country, including dozens of instances of torture, according to Ukrainian prosecutors.

These accusations encompass a range of offenses, including murder, mutilation, child abduction, forced displacement, deportation, sexual violence against children, and kidnapping.

Yulia Usenko, head of the Department for the Protection of Children’s Interests and Combating Violence at the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, revealed these details.

She noted that these crimes are frequently linked to torture and unlawful deprivation of liberty, with over 3,200 criminal proceedings documenting such offenses.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of the previous year, Ukrainian authorities, international organizations, and news outlets have gathered evidence of alleged Russian war crimes and human rights violations.

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Russia, however, has consistently denied these allegations of torture and human rights abuses.

According to Usenko, prosecutors have compiled evidence of 75 children who suffered various forms of torture at the hands of Russian forces.

The majority of these cases, 69 in total, were identified in the village of Yahidne in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region.

These children were held in a school basement alongside adults, and their treatment was characterized as torture.

Some children were detained because the Russians accused them of sharing information about the movement of Russian military equipment and troops.