Overview

• Investigators document use of a Soviet TA-57 field telephone to deliver roughly 80-volt shocks to detainees’ ears, fingers, feet and genitals in a practice nicknamed a “call to Putin” or “call to Lenin.”
• UN special rapporteur Alice Jill Edwards says the abuse is widespread and systematic, amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and notes she has seen no orders from commanders to halt torture.
• The report draws on 10 corroborated case studies involving civilians in Russian-occupied areas and details gang rapes, beatings, genital mutilation, mock executions and forced witnessing of sexual violence.
• Edwards assigns state-level responsibility to senior Russian leaders, stating that President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov bear responsibility for policies enabling the torture.
• Ukrainian authorities report hundreds of recorded sexual-violence cases since 2022, while Russia has moved to denounce the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, complicating external oversight.