Report: Widespread Torture in Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) -- A new report suggests that the detention and torture of civilians has become common in Ukraine, which has been torn by a separatist war in the east.

The joint report released on Thursday by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch says both the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatists have committed enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture of civilians. Researchers based their findings on 40 interviews with victims.

The report suggests that civilians have been detained merely because they were suspected of supporting varying sides of the Ukrainian conflict, which began in April 2014 and has claimed more than 9,400 lives.

A U.N. panel aimed to prevent torture in May cut short its trip to Ukraine because government security forces aren't granting access to sites that it wants to visit.

(KA)