16-year-old imprisoned by Russian soldiers explains torture he witnessed – BBC Newsnight

If Vladimir Putin was in any doubt about the international community’s commitment to call the Russian leader to account for war crimes in Ukraine, a meeting of the Justice Ministers from more than 40 countries, in London on Monday would disabuse him of that.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Putin on Friday, in part involving allegations of a war crime – for the forced transfer of children from Ukraine into Russia.

In this war children have faced unimaginable hardship and horror, seeing things no child should have to witness.

One such is 17-year-old Vladyslav Buryak, from Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine. He is safely in England now staying with a host family along with with his mother and 14-year-old sister, but on the 8 April last year he was seized at a Russian checkpoint, while trying to evacuate to Zaporizhzhia, and later put in prison.

He told Newsnight what happened. Warning: there are some graphic descriptions of torture in his account that you may find distressing.

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