A brutal cell inside a Russian torture chamber has been uncovered and shows where Ukrainian children were supposedly detained.
Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights, said they found 10 torture chambers in Kherson region and four in the city of Kherson.
He said: "In one of the torture chambers we found a separate room, a cell where children were kept... even the occupiers called it that, a children’s cell.”
Mr Lubinets revealed evidence which showed that detained Ukrainian children were "practically not" given food and that they were given water every other day.
His allegations could not be verified independently and he did not provide any evidence of his assertions while informing the press of the claims.
He also claimed that some 12,000 Ukrainian children had been taken to Russia since the invasion began in February, including 8,600 taken by force.
Western officials have spoken of mass deportations of Ukrainians forced to pass through "filtration" points. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in September put the figure of deportations at between 900,000 and 1.6 million.
Russia denies it has staged mass deportations to Russia, including of children, but the US ambassador to the United Nations ratified Mr Lubinet's claims in September saying there had been between 900,000 and 1.6 million deportations.
"We saw the rock bottom in Kherson. In one of the torture chambers, we discovered a separate cell where children were kept. The occupiers themselves called it a 'childrens cell'", Mr Lubinet's said.
One 14-year-old boy was captured and held in cells for taking a photo of broken Russian equipment, the human rights commissioner said.
The human rights commissioner continued: "I personally saw two torture chambers located opposite each other in Balaklia [Kharkiv Oblast]. One guy stayed there for 90 days.
"He said that he had been tortured: they cut him with a knife, heated metal and burned part of his body, several times he was taken out to be shot and they shot over his head."
Around a month ago another torture chamber was also discovered in Kherson, three neighbours and two local shopkeepers said they started hearing screams about six weeks after they saw Russian soldiers take over the building.
On witness told the Guardian: "They would come out beaten up […] completely disoriented. They would come in here and ask for directions and we gave them money for the bus.”
