Ukrainian authorities have launched an investigation into a series of suspected torture sites in the liberated city of Kherson after local civilians told of being confined, beaten, given electric shocks, interrogated and threatened with death by Russian occupiers.
Kyiv forces entered Kherson on 11 November after the Russian army had withdrawn from the city which they captured in the early stage of the conflict, shortly after Russian troops had entered Ukraine in February 2022.
More than two weeks after the Russians retreated, investigators say five torture rooms have been uncovered in the once-bustling port city and at least four more in the wider Kherson region.
Human rights experts have indicated, however, that these early allegations are likely just the tip of the iceberg.
The allegations of brutality lodged against Russia’s occupying forces are varied in their barbarity. One police officer, 24, recalls being given electric shocks to his genitals and ears while held by Vladimir Putin’s troops after refusing to surrender his pistol in exchange for the safety of his mother and brother.
“It was like hell all over my body,” Dmytro Bilyi recalled. “It burns so bad it’s like the blood is boiling... I just wanted it to stop.”
Another 22-year-old detainee told the Associated Press he was shocked by a stun gun along his back for two-and-a-half hours and then forced to stay awake in a chair all night.
Others spoke of Russians rounding up whoever they saw for no discernible reason. Priests, soldiers, teachers and doctors were locked in crowded cells, fed watery soup and bread, and made to learn the Russian anthem while listening to screams from prisoners being tortured across the corridor.
AP says they spoke with five people who allege they were tortured or arbitrarily detained by Russians in Kherson or knew of others who disappeared and endured abuse.
Detainees were allegedly forced to give information about relatives or acquaintances with ties to the Ukrainian army, including names and locations disclosed in handwritten notes.
The torture in the city occurred in two police stations, one police-run detention centre, a prison and a private medical facility, where rubber batons, baseball bats and a machine used for applying electrical shocks were found, said Andrii Kovanyi, a press officer for the police in Kherson.
Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Centre for Civil Liberties, a local rights group, said: “For months we’ve received information about torture and other kind of persecution of civilians. I am afraid that horrible findings in Kherson still lie ahead.”
The Ukrainian national police say more than 460 war crimes have been committed by Russian soldiers in recently occupied areas of Kherson.
