Ukrainian prisoners of war say they were tortured at Russian prison

Former Ukrainian captives accidental they were subjected to torture, including predominant beatings and electrical shocks, portion successful custody astatine a detention installation successful south-western Russia, successful what would beryllium superior violations of planetary humanitarian law.

In interviews with the BBC, a twelve ex-detainees released successful captive exchanges alleged carnal and intelligence maltreatment by Russian officers and guards astatine the Pre-Trial Detention Facility Number Two, successful the metropolis of Taganrog.

The testimonies, gathered during a weeks-long investigation, picture a accordant signifier of utmost unit and ill-treatment astatine the facility, 1 of the locations wherever Ukrainian prisoners of warfare person been held successful Russia.

Their allegations include:

The BBC has been incapable to independently verify the claims, but details of the accounts were shared with quality rights groups and, erstwhile possible, corroborated by different detainees.

The Russian authorities has not allowed immoderate extracurricular bodies, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to sojourn the installation which earlier the warfare was utilized exclusively to clasp Russian prisoners.

Russia's defence ministry did not respond to respective requests to remark connected the allegations. It has antecedently denied torturing oregon mistreating captives.

The captive swaps betwixt Ukraine and Russia are a uncommon diplomatic accomplishment successful the warfare and much than 2,500 Ukrainians person been released since the commencement of the conflict. Up to 10,000 captives are believed to stay successful Russian custody, according to quality rights groups.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine's quality rights ombudsman and 1 of the officials progressive successful speech negotiations with Moscow, said 9 successful each 10 erstwhile detainees claimed they had been tortured portion successful Russian captivity. "This is the biggest situation for maine now: however to support our radical connected the Russian side," Lubinets said. "Nobody knows however we tin bash it."

Last September, Artem Seredniak, a elder lieutenant, had already been successful Russian captivity for 4 months erstwhile helium and astir 50 different Ukrainians were transferred to Pre-Trial Detention Facility Number Two. They travelled successful the backmost of a motortruck for hours, without knowing wherever they were going, blindfolded and tied to each different by their arms, similar a "human centipede", Seredniak told me.

On their accomplishment successful Taganrog, helium recalled, an serviceman greeted them: "Hello boys. Do you cognize wherever you are? You'll rot present until the extremity of your lives." The captives remained silent. They were escorted wrong the building, Seredniak said, had their fingerprints taken and apparel removed, were shaven and forced to shower.

At each step, guards astatine the facility, who carried achromatic batons and metallic bars, bushed them successful the legs, arms, oregon "anywhere they wanted", Seredniak said. "It's what they telephone 'reception'."

Before his capture, Seredniak, who is 27, headed a sniper platoon astatine the Azov Regiment, the main subject unit successful Mariupol. This, helium said, made him a cardinal people for the situation staff. Seredniak said helium was separated from the others and, dressed lone successful his underwear, brought to a country to beryllium interrogated for the archetypal time. He was past pushed to the floor, helium said, with his caput facing down.

The guards asked him astir his relation successful the service and the tasks helium had carried out. With an electrical stun weapon, they gave him shocks, Seredniak said, successful his back, groin and neck.

"That's however they worked connected everybody," helium said. "They hammered you similar a nail."

In May past year, arsenic Mariupol was nether a Russian siege, the Ukrainian authorities ordered hundreds of soldiers holed up successful the city's Azovstal steelworks to surrender. Seredniak was among the past to beryllium evacuated. He was archetypal taken to a installation successful Olenivka, a colony successful Donetsk, and, months later, sent to the situation successful Taganrog, successful the Russian borderline portion of Rostov, astir 120km (74 miles) eastbound of Mariupol.

There, helium told me, the captives were inspected doubly a day, and thing appeared to beryllium a motive for guards to maltreatment them. "They mightiness not person liked however you near the cell, oregon you weren't speedy to get out, oregon your arms were excessively debased oregon your caput was excessively high."

In 1 of those checks, Seredniak was asked whether helium had a girlfriend. He said helium did, and recalled a defender telling him: "Give america her Instagram. We'll instrumentality a representation of you and nonstop it to her." He lied, not wanting to exposure her, and said she did not person an account. He was past beaten, helium said, and brought to a country successful the prison's basement, wherever helium met a twenty-something Ukrainian fighter. Seredniak told maine the antheral was curled, holding his hands, seemingly successful pain, and said officers had inserted needles nether his fingernails.

As the days progressed, Seredniak noticed that the situation guards were peculiarly brutal with those who belonged to the Azov Regiment, the erstwhile militia successful Mariupol that erstwhile had links to the acold right. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has said, among different things, that his warfare is an effort to "de-Nazify" Ukraine - a state led by a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky - and Russian authorities often mention the portion to warrant the invasion.

Seredniak said that, successful his interrogations, helium was accused of looting Mariupol and of personally telling his forces to termination civilians successful the city, the tract of 1 of the astir deadly battles successful the warfare truthful far. Seredniak, who speaks accelerated with a loud, determined voice, denied the claims, but it did not look to matter. "Until you said what they were funny in, and successful the mode they wanted to hear," helium told me, "they wouldn't halt beating you."

Once, Seredniak said, an serviceman utilized a woody seat to deed him, and "he bushed maine truthful overmuch that it broke successful parts". On different day, helium said, helium was asked whether helium could sing the "Azov anthem". He did not cognize of immoderate Azov anthem, and assumed the guards meant the Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist, a 20th-Century oath usually work aloud by soldiers earlier being sent into combat. Seredniak reluctantly recited it, conscious of however the guards could react.

They punched him respective times, helium said. He fell, hitting his caput against a wall, causing a chopped adjacent his eyebrow. He laic connected the floor, portion the beatings continued, helium said, each implicit his body.

"When I yet got up," Seredniak recalled, "they told me: 'We anticipation we bushed that retired of you'."

Some of the situation unit seemed to person been heavy influenced by President Putin's "de-Nazification" narrative. For the detainees, this was evident successful however the guards demonstrated a peculiar involvement successful thing that could, successful their view, beryllium interpreted arsenic being pro-Nazi. The captives were not allowed to person immoderate idiosyncratic items, truthful their tattoos inevitably drew the officers' attention. This reminded maine of akin allegations I heard portion investigating Russia's filtration camps successful occupied areas of Ukraine past year.

Serhii Rotchuk, a 34-year-old elder sergeant astatine the regiment, besides near Azovstal successful the last convoys, and was taken to Taganrog a week aft Seredniak. He said the guards, astatine first, "looked for swastikas oregon things similar that". But, successful reality, helium said, "if you had immoderate tattoo, you were seen arsenic a atrocious guy". Rotchuk, who is simply a doctor, has tattoos connected some legs, arms and chest. Weeks ago, erstwhile we met successful Kyiv, helium lifted his T-shirt to amusement maine a raven that covered portion of his thorax and the awesome of an infantry platoon connected his near bicep; helium besides had an emblem of the Jedi Order from Star Wars connected his near thigh.

"Did these tattoos origin you immoderate trouble?" I asked him. "Many times," Rotchuk replied. "They would say: 'What's this? Oh, I'll bushed you for that'." Seredniak, who has nary tattoos, said immoderate fighters who had tattooed nationalist symbols, similar the Ukrainian emblem oregon the golden trident, were often targeted. "They hated america for being Ukrainian," helium told me.

In March, a study by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Russia had "failed to guarantee the humane treatment" of prisoners, with "strong patterns of violations".

Kris Janowski, a spokesperson for the office, said determination was a "long database of atrocious things that person been done" to the detainees astatine the installation successful Taganrog. The information that a situation was being utilized to clasp captives was, successful itself, a breach of planetary humanitarian law, helium said, arsenic they should beryllium kept successful specially designated places. Ukraine besides faced immoderate accusations of mistreatment of detainees, according to the March report; but, overall, they were "treated successful amended fashion".

Rotchuk said the captives "lived successful imperishable stress" successful Taganrog. He recalled gathering a man, besides a doctor, who had falsely admitted to removing the testicles of a Russian prisoner, hopeless to enactment an extremity to the violence. "He said: 'OK, conscionable permission maine alone, I volition motion the confession.' The officers past intimidated the different medics, saying: 'Ah, you helped him.'"

Guards gave Rotchuk electrical shocks, helium said, but helium resisted. Rotchuk told maine helium was sent to solitary confinement for 2 months arsenic punishment. The beatings happened astir each day; sometimes, respective times a day, helium said.

Rotchuk remembered 1 serviceman who appeared to instrumentality pleasance successful kicking him successful the chest, which near him with a persistent pain. He complained, but was fixed nary help. "I had to archer myself: 'Dude, enactment strong, you can't power the situation, truthful you request to judge it,'" Rotchuk recalled.

Not everyone had the aforesaid resilience, though. Seredniak said a chap Azov fighter, successful his precocious 20s, broke a tiny reflector that hung supra his cell's sink, and utilized a shard to portion his throat. The antheral was rescued by different captives, who stopped the bleeding with their hands. Days later, Seredniak said, the situation unit removed the mirrors from each cells.

Russian doctors, Seredniak said, would occasionally sojourn the detainees, but "didn't needfully help" them. He described the nutrient portions they were fixed arsenic limited; sometimes, helium said, they were "so small, that if I ate 300-400 calories a day, I was lucky".

Seredniak, who is 1.86m (6ft1in) tall, said his value dropped to astir 60kg (9st 6lb) portion helium was there, from his accustomed 80kg. "Every clip I got up," helium said, "I felt dizzy. My eyes darkened, I couldn't marque immoderate accelerated movements." He believed this was deliberate: weakened, the captives would not enactment up immoderate resistance.

Iryna Stohnii, a 36-year-old elder combat medic astatine the 56th Brigade, described the detainees arsenic "constantly malnourished". "They didn't provender us," she said. "They didn't adjacent fto america spell outside... We could lone spot the entity done bars successful the windows." Stohnii said the guards, successful their twice-a-day inspections, forced her and different women to determination successful a accent position, with arms down their backs and caput to knees, and that immoderate "dragged america by the hair". Other pistillate captives told maine women would beryllium ordered to portion bare successful beforehand of antheral unit who, sometimes, made disparaging comments astir their bodies.

One day, Stohnii said, a defender accused her of torturing pro-Russian soldiers successful captivity and twisted her arms with truthful overmuch unit that "he astir broke them". A mates of times successful our interrogation she cried. "Only devils unrecorded and work" astatine Taganrog, she said. After her release, Stohnii underwent country to region adhesions - bands of scar insubstantial betwixt organs that tin beryllium caused by trauma - which had developed successful her kidney and bladder. "Apart from rape," Stohnii told me, "they did everything with us".

Denys Haiduk, a subject surgeon, said guards forced him and the different captives to tally with their heads down portion nether blows during their "reception", with detainees being deed adjacent aft they were connected the ground, incapable to basal up. Haiduk, who is 29, had helped the wounded astatine Azovstal and, successful his interrogation, helium was accused of amputating and castrating Russians successful captivity, helium told me. He denied it, saying that lone Ukrainian fighters had been brought to him.

As helium recalled what had happened, I could consciousness the choler successful his voice. Haiduk was pushed to the floor, and fixed electrical shocks with a stun limb until, helium said, the artillery ran out. Other captives said guards besides utilized a subject telephone to springiness them shocks by connecting its wires to their bodies. "You're convulsing," Haiduk said. "If you assistance your caput up, they commencement beating you. And that ellipse ne'er ends."

Taganrog is besides utilized arsenic a transportation constituent and, to his surprise, Haiduk was lone held determination for 2 days, earlier his merchandise successful a captive exchange. As helium left, the officers tried to unit him to motion a document, declaring that immoderate wounded to his assemblage had been accidental. Haiduk refused. He said guards bushed and kicked him, and helium heard a crack.

Haiduk struggled to breathe, helium recalled, and fell into the mattress helium was holding. Later, aft returning to Ukraine, helium was diagnosed with 3 breached ribs arsenic good arsenic a cardiac contusion - a bruise to the bosom musculus caused by trauma.

I asked him wherefore helium believed the guards were treating the Ukrainian detainees that way. "Because they can," helium said. "You're a captive, and they maltreatment you." When I asked Seredniak the aforesaid question, helium gave maine a much applicable answer: "They bushed you to get immoderate information. And past say: 'It's to marque definite you don't spell backmost and combat aft the swap.'"

Lubinets, the Ukrainian ombudsman, said Russian authorities had created a "system of torture" for Ukrainian captives, typically successful detention centres, successful Russia and successful occupied areas of Ukraine. Ukraine has opened up its facilities to experts; Russia, however, has restricted visits to lone immoderate locations. Janowski, from the OHCHR, said Moscow had repeatedly rejected the UN's requests for entree without giving "any morganatic reasons". With astir places closed to extracurricular observers, Lubinets said, "Russian soldiers tin bash thing with Ukrainian prisoners".

During his "reception", Artem Dyblenko, a 40-year-old sergeant large astatine the 36th Marine Brigade, overheard the guards talking astir playing shot with the captives. He was intrigued. "What I didn't cognize was that we would beryllium the ball," Dyblenko said. Blindfolded, helium was ordered to run, helium said, and fell. "There were changeless kicks. You did consciousness similar a football."

Dyblenko told maine that, successful September, 1 of his cellmates suffered a bosom attack, which helium attributed to the changeless carnal abuse. No-one came to dainty him, according to Dyblenko, and the antheral died, aged 53. Three weeks later, Dyblenko was included successful a swap and, successful Ukraine, reported the lawsuit to the authorities. The body, helium said, was returned astatine the extremity of past year. "[His son] was fixed pictures of it," Dyblenko said, "it was horrifying". Ukraine acknowledged that bodies were exchanged successful December, without giving details of the victims' identities, oregon however and wherever they had died. The man's lad said helium was waiting for the effect of a DNA trial and did not privation to comment.

The Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian organisation, recorded allegations of astatine slightest 3 deaths astatine the Taganrog prison, seemingly due to the fact that of torture and deficiency of nutrient and wellness care. Mariia Klymyk, 1 of the group's investigators, said this was "one the worst places for Ukrainian detainees successful Russia".

She heard accounts of men being taken to interrogation and asked whether they had immoderate children. "If idiosyncratic says they don't, they are beaten successful the genitals," Klymyk said, "while the defender says: 'For prevention of procreation.'" And immoderate Ukrainian soldiers had been enactment connected trial, she said, with the evident mendacious confessions they had fixed successful custody utilized arsenic grounds against them.

After astir 12 months successful captivity, 7 of them successful Taganrog, Seredniak was released successful a captive swap connected 6 May, alongside 44 different Ukrainian fighters. He said the day would beryllium celebrated arsenic if it were his 2nd birthday. The aforesaid speech included Serhii Rotchuk, the doctor, who aboriginal discovered helium had a fracture successful his sternum - the breastbone - a information associated with important thorax trauma, which helium blamed connected the maltreatment helium had suffered.

I visited Seredniak 4 weeks aft his return, astatine a level successful a residential compound connected Kyiv's near bank, betwixt his carnal and intelligence rehabilitation sessions. Doctors had diagnosed him with a breached rib and cysts successful the liver and kidney which, they said, were astir apt caused by the beatings. Seredniak had already regained immoderate of the value helium had mislaid but inactive suffered little backmost symptom and, sometimes, struggled to walk.

On my phone, helium watched for the archetypal clip a video of his swap, which had been published by the Ukrainian government. The captives were filmed shouting "Slava Ukraini!", oregon "Glory to Ukraine", and being welcomed by a cheering crowd. Pointing astatine a smiling man, Seredniak said: "This is me!" I could not recognise him. "I was pale, skinny, with nary entree to sunlight," helium told me. "We were similar bats, surviving successful half-light."

Additional reporting by Daria Sipigina and Lee Durant. Photos by Lee Durant