Russia torturing Ukrainians with electric shock to genitals known as a ‘Call to Putin’

Russia is torturing Ukrainian prisoners with electric shocks to their genitals from a Soviet-era telephone in a cruel method known as making a “call to Putin,” according to a shocking United Nations report.

Wires from the hand-cranked Soviet TA-57 field telephone are connected to prisoners’ ears, fingers, feet and genitals, sending an excruciating 80-volt electric shock, according to a report due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council next month.

Dr. Alice Jill Edwards, the UN’s torture expert who wrote the report, told the Telegraph that “the scale is really off the charts about how many people who are detained are subjected to some form of degrading or inhumane treatment.”

“It’s not only on an individual level; this is widespread and systematic, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The telephone torture is nicknamed a “call to Putin” or “call to Lenin.” Other widespread forms of torture include gang rapes and beatings — as well as stabbing genitals, burning nipples and threatening castration, Edwards said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for his soldiers’ “crimes against humanity,” Edwards said, claiming the torture is “part of Russian war tactics and policy.”

“At no time have I seen directives from the hierarchy for Russian soldiers and others to stop torturing. That’s what I’ve asked for. Those directives do not exist,” she told the UK newspaper.

“It is the level of the state; it’s Putin himself and [foreign minister Sergei] Lavrov who have responsibility for these types of policies.

“The Russian state itself will be held accountable. Torture remains part of, in my view, Russian war tactics and war policy,” she said.

Edwards’ report is based on 10 cases of horrific treatment to civilians in Russian-occupied territories. The cases include threats and attempts to rape and the forced watching of sexual violence against family members, she said.

The victims, four women and six men, were from three regions of Ukraine, some of which were been liberated by the Ukrainian military.

In June, Ukraine’s top prosecutor reported 363 documented cases of sexual violence against civilians, including 19 against children, according to the Telegraph.

Edwards has written a letter to the Kremlin asking for a response to the torture allegations.