A/HRC/45/CRP.8 ‘Donetsk people’s republic’, and 11 detainees (ten men and one woman) from ‘Luhansk people’s republic’. 60. OHCHR interviewed eight of the detainees (all men) released by self-proclaimed ‘republics’. Their testimonies confirmed patterns of arbitrary and incommunicado detention, and torture and ill-treatment of conflict-related detainees that had been previously identified by OHCHR.30 61. Individuals interviewed by OHCHR were apprehended by a ‘police unit for combating organized crime’ or by the ‘ministry of state security’ in territory controlled by ‘Luhansk people’s republic’, or by a ‘police unit for combating organized crime’ in territory controlled by ‘Donetsk people’s republic’. Seven detainees informed OHCHR of being tortured or illtreated, with reported incidents taking place from 2015 to 2018. 31 Methods of torture and ill-treatment included beatings on different parts of the body, dry asphyxiation, electric shocks, sexual violence, including blows and electric shocks to the genitals, positional torture, prolonged solitary confinement, deprivation of water, food, sleep or access to toilets and threats of physical violence to detainees and their families. 62. One detainee told OHCHR that after his apprehension in Luhansk in June 2018, he was locked in a rubbish bin with a lid for three days. He was not allowed out to use the toilet and was not given any food, only water.32 Another detainee told OHCHR that on one day in November 2016 on the premises of the ‘department for combating organized crime’ in Donetsk, a masked individual beat him with rubber stick on the torso, hips, and kidneys. When he fell to the floor, the man kicked him, placed him on his knees on a chair and beat him on his heels. Another day, the man was forced to hold a chair with outstretched arms and was beaten after letting the chair fall.33 A third detainee told OHCHR that one day on the premises of the ‘department for combating organized crime’ in Luhansk in April 2018, while handcuffed, a gas mask was placed on his head and an unidentified gas was pumped through the mask, which made him lose consciousness. Another day, his arms and legs were stretched out and tied up, and an ‘officer’ from the ‘department of combating organized crime’ kicked his genitals, after which the man fainted due to the pain.34 63. Torture and ill-treatment were used to coerce victims to confess, provide information, agree to be filmed or otherwise cooperate with ‘investigation’. For example, one detainee told OHCHR that on one day in June 2018, ‘officers’ of the ‘ministry of state security’ in Luhansk connected wires from a military field telephone to his genitals and administered electric shocks to coerce him to record a video “against Ukraine”.35 Another detainee in Donetsk was told “to sign everything on the page or we’ll continue to torture you”36. C. COVID-19 in the penitentiary system 64. In mid-March 2020, the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine adopted a set of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in places of detention in line with several WHO recommendations.37 The Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights whose Office had been monitoring COVID-19 compliance in the penitentiary since April, noted on 7 May, that in penitentiary institutions, temperature screening of personnel and prisoners was not systematically carried out, they were insufficiently provided with personal protective 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 16 See Annex I to OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 November 2019 to 15 February 2020. OHCHR interviews, 6 and 7 May 2020. OHCHR interview, 6 May 2020. OHCHR interview, 7 May 2020. OHCHR interview, 6 May 2020. OHCHR interview, 6 May 2020. OHCHR interview, 7 May 2020. WHO Regional Office for Europe, Preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention, 15 March 2020, available at www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/434026/Preparedness-prevention-and-control-ofCOVID-19-in-prisons.pdf?ua=1.