Ukrainian authorities claim they have discovered evidence of children being tortured in territories formerly occupied by the Russian army, as authorities confirmed a thwarting of a drone strike.
Ukraine's human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, said in a news briefing on Wednesday that torture chambers allegedly for children accused of resisting Russian forces were found in parts of north-eastern and southern Ukraine recaptured by Kyiv's counteroffensive.
"For the first time, we recorded the torture of children. Yes, it's true — there are no limits to the cynicism of the Russian Federation," Mr Lubinets said.
Mr Lubinets said he had personally seen two sites in Balakliya, a town in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, and spoken with a boy living in the area who said he had been held in one of them for 90 days.
Mr Lubinets did not specify the boy's age, but said that he recalled being cut with a knife, burnt, and subjected to mock executions.
"One boy was there for 90 days; he tells us how he was tortured — he was cut with a knife; metal was heated, and with this metal, parts of his body were burned; he was taken out for a shooting down several times and (they) shot over his head," he said.
Ukrainian officials previously spoke of uncovering alleged torture chambers in both the Kharkiv and Kherson regions following the withdrawal of Russian forces.
"We saw rock bottom in Kherson. In one of the torture chambers, we found a separate cell where children were kept," Mr Lubinets said, citing testimony from former detainees who said children were tortured, deprived of food and water, and subjected to psychological pressure.
"They would say that their parents abandoned them and would not return for them," he said.
Mr Lubinets added that one 14-year-old boy in the Kherson region was detained and tortured after taking photos of broken-down Russian military equipment.
A United Nations report released in September also confirmed at least one girl and eight women were subjected to rape and one boy, along with 359 men and 47 women, was arbitrarily detained.
On December 9, Ukrainian authorities said at least 443 children had been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on February 24, while 855 had suffered injuries and a further 330 were missing.
Daria Gerasimchuk, the Ukrainian children's ombudsperson, also said in early December that Russian forces had illegally removed more than 13,000 Ukrainian children to Russia.
Missile attack thwarted
Ukrainian authorities said they thwarted a Russian attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region Wednesday as their air defence system destroyed 13 explosive-laden drones, although wreckage damaged five buildings, without causing casualties.
The attempted strikes underlined how vulnerable Ukraine's capital remains to the regular Russian attacks that have devastated infrastructure and population centres in recent weeks, mostly in the country's east and south.
But they also highlighted Ukraine's claims of increasing efficiency in intercepting drones and missiles, and the possibility that Patriot missiles from the US may further boost defences.
A blast left the three-story tax office building in the central Shevchenkyvskyi district with a gaping hole in the roof and blew out windows in parked cars and in a neighbouring building.
Residents told Associated Press reporters they saw fragments from a drone bearing the words "For Ryazan."
The Kremlin claims Ukraine was responsible for a cross-border attack last week on a military base in the Ryazan region of western Russia.
Ukrainian authorities have trumpeted their ability to knock down Russian weapons.
But strikes in some areas continue to cause deaths and havoc, particularly close to the frontlines in the east and south.
In the southern city of Odesa, drone strikes temporarily shut off the power last week. Kyiv has suffered comparatively little damage.
More air defence help was apparently on the way.
United States officials said on Tuesday the US was poised to approve sending a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine, agreeing to an urgent Ukrainian request.
The Patriot would be the most advanced surface-to-air missile system the West has provided to Ukraine to help repel Russian aerial attacks.
The Russian Embassy in Washington said a Patriot missile delivery would be "another provocative step by the administration, which could lead to unpredictable consequences."
It added that this would cause "colossal damage not only to Russian-American relations but would create additional global security risks".
US officials said last week that Moscow has looked to Iran to resupply its military with drones and surface-to-surface missiles.
The damage from Russian strikes has interrupted electricity, heating and water supplies as winter approaches.
Power plant offers bonuses for Zaporizhzhia
Ukrainian atomic energy agency Energoatom also told staff on Wednesday it would offer higher bonuses to personnel based at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station who remain loyal to Kyiv.
The plant in southern Ukraine, Europe's largest, has been occupied since shortly after Russia's invasion but is still operated by its Ukrainian staff.
Energoatom said Russian forces were telling Ukrainian workers at the plant that they would not be paid after January 1 if they did not sign contracts with Russia's nuclear energy company, Rosatom.
"These statements are another shameless lie," Energoatom said in a statement.
"Energoatom continues to guarantee the payment of wages and all compensations provided for in the collective agreement to ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant) employees," it said.
"In addition, from January 1, Energoatom is also increasing from 20 per cent to 50 per cent the bonus for ZNPP personnel who stay loyal to Ukraine."
Russia did not immediately comment on the statement. Reuters was unable to verify Energoatom's allegations independently.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree in October transferring the Zaporizhzhia plant from Energoatom to a subsidiary of Rosatom in what Kyiv said amounted to theft.
The plant is located in the Ukrainian region also called Zaporizhzhia, one of four regions Putin says he has incorporated into Russia — a move condemned by Kyiv as an illegal land grab.
Before Russia's invasion, the plant produced about one-fifth of Ukraine's electricity and nearly half the energy generated by the country's nuclear power facilities.
Each side has accused the other of shelling the vast Zaporizhzhia site, raising fears of a nuclear catastrophe and prompting calls for a safety zone to be established around the plant nearly four decades after the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, hopes to establish such a security zone by the end of this year.
No Christmas ceasefire
Moscow said there would be no "Christmas ceasefire", even as the release of dozens more prisoners including an American showed that some contacts between the two sides remain.
Russia and Ukraine are not currently engaged in talks to end the fighting.
"There is no calm on the front line," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a regular evening video address.
Mr Zelenskyy said this week Russia should start withdrawing by Christmas as a step to end the conflict, Europe's biggest since World War II.
Moscow rejected the proposal outright, saying Ukraine must accept the loss of territory to Russia before any progress can be made.
Prisoners of war released
Despite the lack of peace talks and ruling out of a Christmas ceasefire, hundreds of detainees have been freed in swaps in recent weeks.
The releases — along with progress on talks to resume Russian exports of an ingredient in fertiliser and the extension of a grains deal — have shown the two sides maintain at least limited contact on several levels.
The head of Mr Zelenskyy's office, Andriy Yermak, said 64 Ukrainian soldiers and a US national living in Ukraine were released in the latest prisoner swap with Russia. In a Telegram post, he identified the "US citizen who helped our people" as Suedi Murekezi.
Mr Yermak did not elaborate.
What — if any — role Mr Murekezi was serving in Ukraine wasn't immediately clear.
ABC/Wires
