{"id":1093174,"date":"2025-02-11T10:12:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T08:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/?p=1093174"},"modified":"2025-02-11T10:13:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T08:13:01","slug":"kremlin-authorized-brutal-torture-of-ukrainian-pows-from-the-war-s-early-weeks-wsj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/kremlin-authorized-brutal-torture-of-ukrainian-pows-from-the-war-s-early-weeks-wsj\/","title":{"rendered":"Kremlin Authorized Brutal Torture of Ukrainian POWs from the War\u2019s Early Weeks \u2013 WSJ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the first weeks after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the leadership of the Russian penitentiary system lifted all restrictions on violence against prisoners of war. This decision marked the beginning of years of systematic torture of Ukrainian captives in Russian prisons, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/russia\/russia-prisons-ukranian-pow-torture-52df7908\">The Wall Street Journal<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the publication, in March 2022\u2014just weeks after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion\u2014Major General Igor Potapenko, the head of St. Petersburg\u2019s prison system, directly addressed special units of the penitentiary service tasked with handling the influx of war prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Be brutal, show no mercy,&#8221; Potapenko ordered.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>He declared that standard prison regulations would no longer apply. There would be no restrictions on violence, and he also revoked the requirement for guards to wear body cameras, which are otherwise mandatory in Russian prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similar directives were issued across Russia, including in Buryatia, Moscow, Pskov, and other regions, according to <em>WSJ<\/em>. Prison administrators nationwide were ordered to clear entire floors, wings, or even entire facilities to accommodate Ukrainian prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;These meetings marked the start of nearly three years of relentless and brutal torture of Ukrainian POWs. Guards applied electric shocks to prisoners\u2019 genitals until the batteries drained. They beat prisoners, inflicting maximum damage and experimenting to determine which weapons caused the most pain. Medical care was denied, leading to gangrene and resulting in limb amputations,&#8221; the article states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Former Russian prison guards confirmed that Potapenko\u2019s orders were perceived as a carte blanche for violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the first Ukrainian POWs subjected to this system was 25-year-old <strong>Pavlo Afisov<\/strong>, who was captured in Mariupol during the early months of the war. Over 2.5 years, he was transferred between multiple prisons before being released in a prisoner exchange in October 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Upon arriving at a prison in Tver Oblast, north of Moscow, guards took him to a medical examination room, ordered him to strip naked, and repeatedly electroshocked him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;When it was over, they told him to shout &#8216;Glory to Russia, glory to special forces,&#8217; then ordered him\u2014still naked\u2014to stand at the front of the room and sing the Russian and Soviet national anthems. When he said he didn\u2019t know the lyrics, the guards beat him again with their fists and batons,&#8221; the report describes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>According to former prison guards and human rights activists, the Russian authorities used systematic torture to serve a clear purpose: to make prisoners more compliant during interrogations and to break their will to resist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The brutality drained any will or ability to fight again if they were ever exchanged,&#8221; said Vladimir Osechkin, head of the Russian human rights organization Gulagu.net, which has helped former Russian prison officials flee the country and testify before the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read also:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/the-capture-of-ukrainian-civilians-a-large-scale-war-crime-of-putin-s-russia-review-by-dmytro-sniehyrov\/\">The Capture of Ukrainian Civilians \u2014 a Large-Scale War Crime of Putin\u2019s Russia: Review by Dmytro Sniehyrov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the first weeks after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, the leadership of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1093175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,36415,36422],"tags":[78],"sources":[],"class_list":["post-1093174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","category-11473-news-en","category-11473-news-en-3","tag-homepage-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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