(NewsNation) — Survivors of suspected Russian war crimes in Ukraine testified Wednesday morning before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where they shared harrowing stories of brutality.
A 57-year-old Ukranian woman said she spent five days in a Russian torture chamber near Kherson, where she was beaten and threatened with rape and death. She was forced to dig her own grave before eventually being released.
“The world must show people are not closing their eyes to the war, torture, rape,” she said. “Russia must be held accountable for all the evil it has caused against Ukraine.”
Another woman, who spoke on behalf of a teenage boy born in Mariupol, said he was taken from his family and sent to Russia, where he was forced to watch anti-Ukraine propaganda.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general also testified and called on U.S. lawmakers to designate the Wagner Group as a terrorist organization. The private military company — whose mercenaries have a reputation for human rights abuses — is led by a rogue millionaire with longtime ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The hearing comes just days after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced plans to appoint a prosecutor and a legal adviser to assist Ukraine with its efforts to investigate and prosecute suspected Russian war crimes.
Last month, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes over his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine. President Joe Biden called the arrest warrant “justified” and said Putin has “clearly committed war crimes.”
A statement posted earlier this month on Twitter by Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said more than 19,500 children had been seized from their families or orphanages and forcibly deported.