A Ukrainian Marine spoke at the UN about torture while in Russian captivity
Junior Sergeant Juan Alberto Leyva García of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who defended Mariupol and spent 1,183 days in Russian captivity, spoke at a UN Security Council meeting under the Arria formula. He spoke about the torture and cruel treatment he endured at the hands of Russian military personnel.
According to the Ukrainian defender, the occupiers tortured him, in part because of his name and Cuban heritage.
Speaking in Spanish, the Marine said he was born in Mariupol to a Ukrainian mother and a Cuban father. He studied in the United States for several years but returned to Ukraine in 2018 to defend it against the Russian occupation.
In 2022, after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, he defended the Azovstal steel plant alongside other Ukrainian servicemen. Leiva García emphasized that the Ukrainian defenders agreed to surrender as a result of international negotiations, having received assurances that they would be treated in accordance with international humanitarian law and would be prioritized for prisoner-of-war exchanges.
“What happened next was very different (from what was promised—ed.)... More than 2,400 men were placed in overcrowded barracks without adequate conditions. There was almost no water, and food was extremely scarce,” Leiva García noted.
According to him, nearly all the prisoners contracted dysentery; they went hungry, lost weight rapidly, and some fainted several times a day.
“My Spanish name led many Russian officials to suspect that I was a mercenary. They couldn’t understand that Ukrainians can have mixed ethnic origins without losing their Ukrainian identity,” he noted.
Russian investigators and prison officials, as Leiva García emphasized, tried to force him to confess that he was a foreign mercenary. He was taken for interrogations and tortured, including with electric shocks.
“The Russians tied up prisoners of war, handcuffed them, and sexually assaulted them using foreign objects. The goal was to break their mental state and force them to confess to fabricated crimes,” he stated.
The serviceman called on representatives of the international community to uphold international law and counter Russian crimes.
“Russian captivity kills everyone, at every turn, at every level. There is no immunity, no citizenship that can protect against torture and murder,” Leiva García emphasized.
This was reported by a Ukrinform correspondent.
There are 20 Russian soldiers currently held captive in Ukraine who surrendered again after a prisoner exchange.
As a reminder, since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, at least 406 Ukrainian military personnel and civilians have died in Russian captivity. At the same time, Russian occupiers are subjecting Ukrainian prisoners of war to 695 different forms of torture.
The National Bank of Ukraine is putting into circulation a new commemorative 10-hryvnia coin titled “In Memory of Those Executed, Tortured, or Killed in Captivity.” It is dedicated to honoring the defenders of Ukraine—both men and women—as well as volunteers and civilians who fell victim to Russian captivity.
