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Balakliia in Ukraine: Reports of Suffering and Torture in Liberated City

2022-09-14T18:33:17.949Z


Ukrainian soldiers advancing into previously occupied areas report Russians "running like mice." Residents were apparently victims of inhumane detention methods - and torture.


AreaRead the video transcript expand here

Recordings from the Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine.

They were published by the Ukrainian army and are said to have originated in the areas that the Ukrainian armed forces were able to recapture from the Russians in the past few days.

A soldier describes how he experienced the withdrawal of the Russian military.

Ukrainian soldier


»They ran like mice.

They ran leaving everything behind, vehicles, their own men.

They even shot one of their own men who was wounded just to escape.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj speaks of around 6,000 square kilometers that his country's army has recaptured from the Russian occupiers.

The counteroffensive began last Wednesday near the small town of Balakliia.

After the liberation, the people here report about cruel experiences under the violent occupation.

Marija Tymofiyeva, resident


»You stripped my husband down to his underwear.

Here on the street someone had to undress completely.

They look at you, turn around, look for scars or tattoos.

Whether you have served or not.

They took people… it was horrible here.”

Walentyna

, local resident


»It was the last day of the escape of these 'Russians' from Balakliia.

It was an escape!

They hurried, the vehicles drove into each other.

Their soldiers sat on the vehicles like flies.

They ran away.

And my son with his friend in the car was shot at right in the center.

// I screamed so that all of Balakliia could hear.

I thought the sky would shatter.

I yelled at Putin.

I cursed this war, I cursed Putin.

But nobody will give me my son back.«

A police officer shows the Reuters news agency prison cells in which, according to witnesses, the Russians mostly locked Ukrainian men.

Serhiy Boldyrev, Ukrainian police


"There were six to seven people in this cell at a time."

Serhiy Boldyrev, Ukrainian police


»People made marks on the walls how many days they spent here.

There are tracks on the wall.”

Artem Larchenko

, imprisoned by Russian soldiers


»They took me to a prison cell and put two wires in my hands.

There was a mechanism that generated more electricity the more you turned it.

He (Russian soldier) spun it faster and faster.

He told me not to let go.

'If you let go, you're finished.' Then he began to ask - where, who, when... who used to be a soldier and still lives in Balakliia?"

Russia has meanwhile admitted its retreat in the north-east and with it the military defeat.

With every town liberated, concern grows as to what atrocities will come to light once the occupying forces leave.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-09-14

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