Russian soldiers used a separate chamber to torture children in a building in the now-liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to the Ukrainian Parliament's commissioner for human rights.
"We saw the rock bottom in Kherson," Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said at a press conference, according to Pravda. "In one of the torture chambers, we discovered a separate cell where children were kept. The occupiers themselves called it a 'children's cell.'"
Lubinets claimed Russian forces drastically cut back on food and water rations for the child captives, and told them their parents had abandoned them.
One 14-year-old boy was captured and held for taking a photograph of damaged Russian equipment, the human rights commissioner said.
The shocking discovery comes as an international team of legal advisers visited Kherson to start gathering evidence of alleged sexual crimes by Russian soldiers, as part of a larger investigation, according to The Daily Mail.
In one of Russia's biggest military defeats so far, Ukrainian troops recaptured Kherson in early November. The city had been occupied by Russian forces for months before being liberated.
Some residents who remained during the occupation have described being held and tortured, repeating claims made by Ukrainians across swaths of recently reclaimed territory.
Torture chambers have been found by Ukrainian authorities in other locations previously held by Russian troops, according to Lubinets.
"I personally saw two torture chambers located opposite each other in Balaklia [Kharkiv Oblast]," Lubinets said. "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."
Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, is on the ground in Kherson helping collect evidence of sexual violence.
According to the Mail, its efforts are part of a broader international effort to assist swamped Ukrainian officials, as they work to hold Russia accountable for war crimes.
Accusations of rape and other mistreatments were raised not long after Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine on Feb. 24, the first day of battle between the neighboring countries.
Russia has denied committing war crimes or targeting civilians as part of its "special military operation" in Ukraine. The Kremlin has also denied allegations of sexual violence committed by the Russian military.
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