Her comments were one of the strongest condemnations implicating the Russian leadership by an independent expert since Russia’s full-scale invasion last year.

Moscow has denied it practices torture, she said, but its refusal to address the issue, and the accumulating cases, amounted to tacit approval of its use.

“Russian authorities have failed so far to send a directive to their soldiers and the military command informing them that torture and such types of detentions and interrogations are not acceptable,” she said.

Moscow had failed to respond even to her recent offer to visit and report on the conditions of Russian prisoners of war held in Ukraine, she added.

Last week she made public details of four individuals who had told her they were tortured while detained under Russian occupation in the region of Izium in northeastern Ukraine last year.

One nonprofit organization found increased demand for the morning-after pill from women in areas that were recaptured from Russian forces, she said.

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