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During the occupation of Kherson, Russian soldiers not only tortured Ukrainians, but also finished off the wounded. Citizens were kept under lock and key in cramped cells. Many could not stand the conditions of stay. Such data was obtained by Human Rights Watch employees, collecting information for the report from Kherson residents who survived torture. This was announced on the FREEDOM TV channel by Rachel Denber, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia.
She noted that Human Rights Watch staff interviewed about the details of the detention of 31 people by Russian troops during the occupation of the Kherson region, 12 of them were illegally in detention centers, where they were tortured.
“They said that there were very severe beatings of the detainees, applying electric shock to them by applying electrodes to the earlobes and between the fingers. Long and cruel beatings with rubber truncheons, sticks, just pushing… There was even one case, a man said that during his detention in the isolation ward, two of his cellmates died. One of them was first tortured, then thrown back into the cell. He was lying on the floor when two more Russians suddenly ran in and started finishing him off. After that, he was suffocating, they called an ambulance and took him away, but he died because he was in a very bad condition, ”Denber shared.
In addition to isolation wards, Russian soldiers kept Ukrainians in other premises: farms, city administrations, and local schools.
“One person was held in the main administrative building of the city of Kherson, he was severely beaten and electric shocks were applied to him. Another person was detained far from Kherson, after 3 weeks of detention on a corn farm, he was transferred to the school building. There he was kept together with 10 other people in a dark closet… Can you imagine, 10 people in a small dark room, 2 by 3 meters! There were also beatings and dead, he told us that one of his cellmates was beaten very badly by the Russians, and he died, ”said Rachel Denber.
As reported, law enforcement agencies, primarily the Security Service of Ukraine, are now investigating all known facts of the occupiers’ criminal actions against residents of Kherson and the region.
