"Horrible screams": Witnesses report cruel torture chambers in Kherson
Created: 11/19/2022 10:13 p.m
By: Andreas Apetz
Photos show the smeared walls of the police station in Kherson.
(Archive photo) © NurPhoto/Imago Images
In Kherson, a police station has been turned into a center for Russian torture.
Witnesses report on the actions of the occupiers.
Kherson - The withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson is a major victory for Ukraine.
However, they also reveal the horrific war crimes that took place during the nine-month occupation.
In addition to destruction and looting, cruel torture is mentioned again and again.
It wouldn't be the first time that Russia has resorted to torture in the Ukraine war: At the end of August, Azov fighters who had been freed from Mariupol accused the Russian occupiers of "severe torture".
Even if the information on the Ukraine war is difficult to verify, the Ukrainian police are clear: torture was used in Cherson.
A total of 63 bodies with signs of torture are said to have been found in the capital.
"We must be aware that the search has only just begun [...]," Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyj said on Thursday evening (November 17).
Torture in Cherson: Serious abuse in Ukraine
It is currently difficult to estimate how many people were ultimately mistreated and killed by the Russian occupiers in Cherson.
Countless people remain missing even after the Ukrainian takeover of the city.
In addition to the bodies found so far, more than 40 surviving victims have confirmed to the Ukrainian authorities that they were tortured.
The
mirror
reported .
The actions of the Russian soldiers during the torture were described by witnesses and authorities on Ukrainian television.
"They were electrocuted, beaten with metal pipes, their bones were broken," said Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinetz.
"They said [...] they would force us to walk towards the Ukrainian positions on a minefield," a 27-year-old prisoner told
Tagesschau
.
The Russians also used humiliation and psychological torture, such as sleep deprivation or being denied a toilet, to harass the inmates.
Victims who didn't survive the ordeal were "wrapped in cellophane" and "thrown in the trash," an eyewitness reported on public television.
War crimes in Kherson: Multiple torture chambers found
According to the Interior Ministry, there are eleven places in Kherson where people have been detained and tortured.
In the center is probably the city police station.
Images from the
mirror
show neglected offices and cells with barred windows.
The walls are smeared with Russian slogans and the Z symbol.
Over a period of nine months, the police building was converted into a torture center.
Thin walls ensured that the tortured experienced not only their own torment, but also the suffering of their roommates.
“I could hear the others being tortured all day long.
Those were horrific screams,” the Tagesschau
quoted
a witness as saying.
The tormented shouts are also said to have been heard outside the police station.
Human rights commissioner Lubynets said he had "never seen such levels of torture" in all his trips to "torture chambers in different regions" of the country.
(aa/dpa/afp)