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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Susie Beever

Inside Putin's torture chamber as Russian troops accused of nearly 90,000 war crimes

Chilling images have purported to show the inside of a Russian torture chamber where Ukrainian prisoners of war have been held.

The pictures show a chair in the middle of a blackened room and another strewn with debris, allegedly providing a glimpse of the horrors Vladimir Putin's soldiers have been subjecting prisoners to.

It comes as this week marked the first anniversary of the Russian tyrant's brutal invasion, with Ukraine's government claiming it has already been made aware of more than 90,000 different war crimes including physical torture and rape.

The city of Kherson, in the south of the country, suffered around 8,000 alleged war crimes alone before it was reclaimed by Ukrainian troops in November.

The reclamation resulted in the grim discovery of a chamber dubbed 'The Hole', Mail Online reports, where prisoners were allegedly beaten and tortured.

Ukrainian secret services claimed they discovered a horrific Russian torture chamber in liberated Kherson (Ukrainian secret service/east2west news)
Russia has been accused of breaking several international laws, including the alleged use of thermobaric warheads on civilians (Ukrainian secret service/east2west news)

One prisoner says he was electrocuted by his genitals in a disturbing account of the horrors enforced by Putin's men.

Andriy Andryushcenko, 28, says he was held for 47 days after Russian soldiers found him painting pro-Ukrainian graffiti.

"They beat me and put electric wire on my genitals and ears," said the salesman, who is now working for Ukraine's military administration.

"They joked they were making calls to Zelensky or Biden when they did it as it was rigged to an old telephone.

"It was hell. They knocked my teeth out beat me unconscious."

He added: "They put dumb bells on my neck and a knife at a back and made me squat down.

"I thought I was going to die."

A war expert told The Mirror that Ukrainian civilians will "pay the brunt" as desperate Putin may try to "put screws harder and harder" into the country one year into the war.

Former Pentagon intelligence analyst Marc Garlasco said: "We're going to see potentially a ratcheting up in the war crimes being committed by the Russians and potentially more widespread civilian harm, that is my fear."

Nadia Knyaz, 30, said her husband was arrested by Russian troops after they discovered he used to serve for Ukraine's Army.

"[They] put a blindfold on him, beat him and threatened to shoot him if he did not tell them where the military were," the landscape gardener said.

A prison cell is seen inside a building in Kherson allegedly used as a Russian prison and supposed torture chamber (Getty Images)

"I was so scared but they let him go after a bit but took our car.

"They wanted him to collaborate but he said he didn't know anything."

Ms Knyaz spoke from Kherson as a strike on a bus stop in the city killed six people and wounded a further 12.

"Ukraine will win this war, but at what cost?" she added.

"Too many have died. The Russians have been here a year.

"Time has slipped away since they brought terror."

While Ukraine has so far recorded 90,000 war crimes, including the bombing of hospitals, schools, it believes Russia is responsible for many more.

The Russians have been accused of breaking several international laws, including the alleged use of devastating thermobaric warheads against Ukrainian positions and civilians.

Russia has been accused of around 90,000 reported war crimes in Ukraine, although the real scale could be much worse (Getty Images)

Though prohibited from use against civilians under international laws, officials claimed Putin used the aerosol weapons during an attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol.

Karina Tereshkova, 23, told MailOnline she was raped by a gang of Russian men as they massacred her hometown of Bucha, north of Kyiv, in March last year.

The brutal attack also saw the men pull out all but one of her fingernails.

Her mother Olena Derenko, 42, described the men as "animals", saying "they have caused so much pain".

"My heart aches for Karina," she added. "I cry every day."

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