Ukrainian police state faced Times of having found ten suspected Russian torture chambers in Kharkiv county in northeastern Ukraine.
In one of the premises, the police allegedly found a box of gold teeth, which they said were extracted from the jaws of prisoners of war. They are also said to have found several items they suspect were used in torture, such as electric cables, burnt rags, and Soviet gas masks.
Both civilians and soldiers were reportedly detained on the premises.
– Neighbors could hear screams from there all the time, Serhij Bolinov, chief of investigation of the Kharkiv police, told the British newspaper.
The nightmare scenario: this is how the West will respond
– They shot me in the foot
Associated Press identified ten suspected torture chambers in Izium alone, which was recently recaptured by the Ukrainian army.
Their investigation concludes that torture, under Russian occupation, was arbitrary, widespread and routine for both civilians and soldiers throughout the city.
Among other things, the news agency spoke to 15 people who claim to have suffered torture in the area.
One of them, Andrij Kotsar, says he was tied up and thrown into a ditch covered from above with wooden planks for several days, the first time he was captured in Izium.
TORTURED: Andrij Kotsar is said to have been captured and tortured by Russian soldiers on three occasions since March. Photo: Jevgenij Maloletka / AP / NTB
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The Russian soldiers would then hit him, again and again, with a hammer. Before he was released, he was said to have been stripped of his passport and military identity card, all he had to prove his identity.
He would later be captured again and tortured, even more brutally, in two new rounds.
Mikola Mosiakin recounts similar experiences.
– They beat me with sticks. They hit me with their hands, kicked me, and dumped cigarettes on me, he tells The Associated Press.
– They said “dance”, but I didn’t dance. So they shot me in the foot.
After three days, Mosiakin says, he was discharged near the local hospital, with strict instructions to tell staff that his injuries were due to an accident.
He also describes being captured and tortured multiple times.
TORTURED: Mikola Mosiakin photographed in a former medical clinic in Izium where she was held captive and tortured by Russian soldiers. Photo: Jevgenij Maloletka / AP / NTB
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A doctor who is said to have treated hundreds of residents during the Russian operation says people regularly arrived at the local emergency room with wounds compatible with torture.
– None of them would explain the injuries. Although people came to the hospital, silence was the norm, says Yuri Kuznetsov.
The UN has evidence of war crimes
The images and stories of the recently reconquered areas in northeastern Ukraine have once again led to international condemnation of the conduct of Russian forces.
The exhumation of the bodies from the Izium mass grave was completed on 23 September. Out of 447 bodies, 30 had, according to local authorities, signs of torture.
– There are corpses with ropes around their necks, with their hands tied, with broken limbs and gunshot wounds, wrote the governor of Kharkiv Oleh Synjehubov, at the end of the excavations.
Earlier that day, the UN commission investigating possible war crimes concluded that such crimes had been committed in Ukraine.
Among other things, the commission referred to Russian attacks on civilian areas, numerous executions, torture and sexual violence. Some victims were transported to Russia and held there against their will for several weeks.
– Witnesses describe beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity, as well as other abusive treatment in such detention centers, Norwegian lawyer Erik Møse told the UN Human Rights Council when the findings were presented.
