Ukraine has revealed the ghastly reality of inside a Russian "torture dungeon" found in liberated Kherson.
The gruesome discovery was made during a patrol of the city by the SBU secret service and national police officers, who were believed to have been tipped off by locals.
In brutal conditions, the invaders interrogated “local patriots” who “refused to cooperate with the enemy”, said the Ukrainian government.
The authorities said: “Kherson residents were interrogated and brutally tortured. During the inspection, torture law enforcement officers found objects that directly indicate signs of torture.”
Among the sinister finds were gas masks and bottles of liquid which are now being analysed.
Wall markings from inmates were used to count the days they were held for.
They claim to have found 11 illegal prisons and four torture chambers in Kherson after it was liberated. More than 700 people have been reported missing.
Interior minister Denys Monastyrsky said the investigation into crimes there had only just begun, "so many more dungeons and burial places will be uncovered".
Writing from a detainee on the wall of the hell chamber says: "Pray to God for us. God, give us strength. God, save and protect."
There was also evidence that the Russians sought to clear away evidence before they fled Kherson.
“A series of investigative and operational measures are being carried out to document all the crimes of the occupiers, identify the culprits and bring them to justice,” said the Ukrainian government.
The Ukrainian minister of internal affairs, Denys Monastyrskyi, also said in a TV interview broadcast on Wednesday that the bodies of 63 people who had been tortured were found in the Kherson region.
He said exhumations were ongoing.
Oleksandr Kuzmin said to the Washington Post he was held in the detention centre for a day, during which people he suspected to be FSB agents smashed his leg with a hammer.
He said that in a room below his cell, he could hear people screaming in pain and a young man he shared a cell with had electric shocks by the Russians on his nipples and penis.
The Washington Post revealed that prisoners were forced to say, “Hail Putin” or “Hail Russia” to receive meals.
Russia this month staged a humiliating retreat by Vladimir Putin ’s forces from the provincial capital in the face of a powerful Ukrainian counteroffensive.
A feature of Russian retreats has been the discovery of torture chambers used by the occupiers.
