Ukrainian prisoners of war have detailed their gruesome encounters in Russian torture camps which they say has seen them castrated with pocket knives.
Two soldiers, aged 25 and 28, have spoken about their experiences after spending one and three months respectively in the company of Vladimir Putin's sick troops.
They were both part of a prison swap and returned to Ukraine before being referred to psychologist Anzhelika Yatsenko, 41, who already 'knew' they had been tortured due to their suicidal thoughts. One soldier admitted he had tried to kill himself.
Both men said they were unable to trace what occurred to them during the first month of their stay in prison. They said: "If there's hell somewhere, it’s worse than that."
As reported by The Sunday Times, the two Ukrainian soldiers say they were regularly beaten before drunk Russian troops castrated them with a pocket knife.
One said there was "so much blood" that they are unsure how they survived. It is believed that the Russians told them they did the monstrosity so that they could not father children. The older of the two men has returned to duty in the Ukrainian army.
Ms Yatsenko admitted that she "cried and cried" in the bathroom after hearing the two soldiers experiences and declared they were the most horrible thing she had ever heard.
UN experts have warned about the reported use of electric shocks, hoodings and mock executions of Ukrainian soldiers.
It is thought that the UN experts had written to Moscow about their concerns of the techniques to extract intelligence, force confessions or in response to alleged support for Ukraine's forces.
It had resulted in damage to internal organs, cracked bones and fractures, strokes and psychological traumas, they said.
Earlier this month, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia the alliance would boost defences in member states if the Kremlin threatened their security.
The military coalition’s Secretary-General again hit out at Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine - and vowed solidarity would be maintained among NATO’s 31 countries.
He said: "NATO is there to protect all allies against any threats and if we see a danger, if we see a threat, then NATO will be there - as we have been protecting the airspace and NATO territory for decades.
"We have the ability to quickly reinforce if needed."
He warned Moscow: "The whole idea of NATO is that we are ‘one for all, all for one’ - and we do what is needed to protect all allies."
Former Norwegian Prime Minister Mr Stoltenberg was speaking at the end of a summit of the “Bucharest Nine” nations - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - in Slovak capital Bratislava.
The NATO grouping, formed in the Romanian capital in 2015 following Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine a year earlier, comprises nations which were either part of the Soviet Union or the NATO rival, the Warsaw Pact.
