Local authorities said they discovered 25 torture camps surrounding the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv since its liberation from Russian occupation.

The regional police chief, Volodymyr Timoshenko, has said in a Facebook post that Russian troops had detained and tortured civilians under inhumane conditions, among other things, in the camp.

He said some prisoners had been subjected to electric shocks, and others had broken their fingers.

Russian troops occupied the area around Kharkiv for months and only withdrew at the beginning of September after a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Mr Timoshenko said since then, 920 bodies of civilians, among them 25 children, have been discovered in the liberated region.

According to investigations by Ukrainian authorities, Russian forces have also committed war crimes in other occupied territories.

After the withdrawal of Russian units from the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, the bodies of more than 400 people were discovered there.

Most of them had suffered violent deaths. The investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, Russia said 63 soldiers were killed in Ukrainian missile strikes in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine on New Year’s eve, as Kyiv reported a fifth consecutive night of mass drone strikes.

(dpa/ NAN)