A new report by Truth Hounds and Project Expedite Justice examines the establishment and operation of the detention and torture system in occupied Kharkiv Oblast between February and September 2022, which may amount to crimes against humanity.

At its peak in summer 2022, the Russian Federation controlled around 30 per cent of the oblast. The occupied territory remained highly militarised and unstable, with shifting frontlines and improvised military authority. For civilians remaining in occupied parts of the oblast in 2022, daily life was increasingly shaped by scarcity, fear, surveillance and the constant effort to avoid suspicion, arrest and detention.

Drawing on 114 survivor and witness testimonies, documentary evidence, and open-source investigations the report documents instances of unlawful arrests, abuses during transfers and interrogations, inhumane detention conditions, repeated physical torture, sexualised violence, and psychological coercion.

The evidence reveals recurring patterns across the 29 identified torture sites, including common structural and organisational features, profiling practices, interrogation methods and torture techniques.

The report was produced in cooperation with PEJ with the generous support of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.