When Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson in November 2022, the Russians left something behind. Investigators documented a network of 10 torture chambers across the region, with four inside the city itself. Inside one of them, they found a separate cell that Russian security forces had given a name: "the children's cell."
The children held there were as young as 11 years old. What was done to them is documented. The survivors who came forward after liberation described it in detail. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants in response. And the Trump administration is pressing Ukraine to accept a peace deal that would leave other communities under the same occupation.
What Investigators Found in Kherson
Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets announced the discovery of the children's cell on December 14, 2022, describing it as the first documented case of children being held in a torture facility in Ukraine. The disclosure came weeks after Ukraine's Armed Forces completed the liberation of Kherson, ending an occupation that began in the first days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Children inside were denied adequate food and water. Survivors reported that Russian captors told the detained children that their parents had abandoned them and would never return. Some children were forced to clean the blood from adjacent rooms where adults had been beaten and subjected to electric shocks.
One 14-year-old boy was arrested after taking a photograph of destroyed Russian military equipment. He was held for months, subjected to knife cuts, burns from heated metal, and repeated mock executions. A 16-year-old, detained in occupied Melitopol in a separate case documented by the Kyiv Independent, described being ordered to clean the torture room after sessions involving adult prisoners.
"We recorded the torture of children for the first time," Lubinets said after the discovery. "I thought that the bottom could not be broken after Bucha, Irpin... but we really reached the bottom in Kherson."
A Pattern Across Every Liberated Territory
Human Rights Watch conducted an independent investigation and published its findings in April 2023, documenting a major Russian torture center in Kherson at 3 Teploenerhetykiv Street. Former detainees described consistent methods: beatings with rubber batons, electric shocks, threats of execution, and prolonged stress positions. HRW documented 42 cases of arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearance in Kherson alone.
The Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR) documented systematic patterns across more than 20 detention sites in six Ukrainian regions: Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson. The methods were consistent across all locations, indicating coordination, not improvisation.
Russia also transferred Ukrainian children out of occupied territories entirely. By December 2022, Ukraine's presidential advisor for children's rights Daria Herasymchuk reported that more than 13,000 children had been illegally transferred to Russia, and that the real figure likely numbered in the tens of thousands. Ukraine's criminal proceedings have since documented more than 16,000 forced child deportations.
"De-occupation is not only about reclaiming territory. It is about saving the lives of those still living under Russian occupation." — United24 / u24.gov.ua
The ICC Warrants and the Accountability Challenge
On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, charging both with the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied territories. The ICC issued its first-ever arrest warrant for a sitting head of state.
In June 2024, the ICC issued additional warrants for former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, covering their roles in missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. All 125 ICC member states are obligated to detain the named individuals if they enter their territory. Russia has not ratified the Rome Statute and rejects the court's jurisdiction.
What Territorial Concessions Actually Mean
As of May 2026, the Trump administration has been pressing Ukraine toward a ceasefire framework that would require ceding portions of occupied Ukrainian territory. Reporting from CSIS and Al Jazeera confirms that the proposed U.S. framework would require Ukraine to give up approximately 2,500 square miles of Donetsk oblast still under Ukrainian military control in exchange for roughly 700 square miles near Kharkiv.
The proposal was advanced while Russian forces continued targeting civilian infrastructure. On May 28, 2026, a Russian strike on a children's playground in Kherson killed a father and left his family seriously wounded. The Kyiv Independent's most recent casualty report recorded 1,360,110 Russian military losses since the start of the full-scale invasion, alongside ongoing daily Ukrainian civilian casualties.
A majority of Ukrainians oppose ceding the Donbas. According to survey data, 52 percent oppose territorial concessions in exchange for security guarantees, and 65 percent say they are prepared to continue the war as long as necessary.
Kherson was liberated. Investigators then found the children's cell. The communities still under occupation have not yet had their investigators arrive.
Sources
- Kyiv Independent: Ombudsman — Children's torture chamber found in liberated Kherson (December 14, 2022)
- Human Rights Watch: Ukraine — Russian Torture Center in Kherson (April 13, 2023)
- Kyiv Post: Chamber Used by Russians to Torture Children Found in Kherson
- Ukrainska Pravda: Children's Torture Chambers Found in Liberated Territories (December 14, 2022)
- International Criminal Court: ICC Issues Arrest Warrants Against Putin and Lvova-Belova (March 17, 2023)
- United24 Media: War Crimes Investigator Father Desbois Details Russian Torture of Ukrainians
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