Ukrainian police discover Russian torture camps near Kharkiv

Created: 01/03/2023, 06:40

By: Helena Gries, Sandra Kathe, Caspar Felix Hoffmann, Karolin Schäfer, Kilian Bäuml, Jan-Frederik Wendt, Christian Stör, Sarah Neumeyer

The Ukraine war has been raging for ten months.

In Kharkiv, the police discover numerous torture camps and hundreds of corpses of Ukrainian civilians.

The news ticker.

• Cherson:

  474 people are said to have been kidnapped.

• Ukrainian missile strikes:

  Moscow confirms deadly air strike in Donbass

• Editor's note: 

  Read the latest developments from the Ukraine conflict in our new ticker.

  The information on the Ukraine war processed here comes partly from the warring parties in Russia and Ukraine.

  They can therefore not be independently checked in part.

Update from January 3, 6.40 a.m .:

Since the liberation of the area around the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv from the Russian occupiers, the police say they have discovered 25 torture camps there.

In the camps, Russian troops are said to have detained and tortured civilians under inhumane conditions, regional police chief Volodymyr Tymoshko said on Facebook on Monday (January 2).

Some of the prisoners were given electric shocks, others had their fingers broken.

This information could not initially be verified independently.

The area around Kharkiv had been occupied by Russian troops for months.

They withdrew only at the beginning of September last year after a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Since then, 920 civilian bodies have been discovered in the liberated region, including 25 children, Tymoschko said.

They were killed by Russian soldiers.

The corridor of a basement in a building that a war crimes prosecutor says was used as a torture facility by Russian forces during the Ukraine war.

© Evgeniy Maloletka/dpa

Ukraine war news: Russian soldiers kidnap Ukrainian civilians in Cherson

+++ 9:07 p.m .:

474 residents of the Kherson Oblast, who had previously been kidnapped by Russian soldiers, are still in captivity.

This was announced by the Kherson prosecutor's office.

"As of this writing, investigators know that out of 683 freed Ukrainian citizens, 474 are still illegally detained," prosecutors said.

Among them are mainly politicians, civil servants and clergy.

In the meantime, the Ukrainian law enforcement authorities had taken measures to determine the whereabouts of these people.

Investigations into the kidnapping of citizens of Kherson Oblast are also ongoing.

Pictures of the Ukraine war: great horror and small moments of happiness

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Ukraine War: Ukrainian forces retake island

+++ 8:05 p.m .:

On Monday evening (January 2), the Ukrainian armed forces recaptured the island of Velykyi Potomkin between the left and right banks of the Dnipro River in the Cherson Oblast.

This was announced by Ukrainian MP Oleksii Honcharenko on Telegram.

Honcharenko also shared a video of a Ukrainian soldier talking about the island's evacuation.

Officially, the Ukrainian General Staff has not yet commented on the information about the liberation of the island.

Since December 15, the island was under the control of Russian forces.

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War in Ukraine: Russian troops open fire again

+++ 19.25 p.m .:

On Monday (January 2nd) Russian troops again opened fire from mortars and artillery on the border settlements in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine.

"Between 12:10 p.m. and 12:30 p.m., 16 hits were reported," Ukraine's Operational Command North posted on Facebook.

There are no losses of soldiers or equipment.

There is also no information about casualties among the local population or damage to civilian infrastructure.

Ukrainian Supreme Commander: Many occupied territories liberated

+++ 6.10 p.m .:

The Ukrainian armed forces would have injured or killed more than 100,000 Russian soldiers in 2022, liberated 40 percent of the Ukrainian territories occupied during the Russian invasion and destroyed almost 42,000 Russian explosive devices.

This was announced by Valeriy Zalushny, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, on Telegram.

According to Zalushny, the training of the Ukrainian armed forces is currently taking place in 17 European countries.

Meanwhile, recruits who joined the Ukrainian armed forces with little or no previous military experience underwent a five-week training course in the UK, during which they learned the skills needed for survival and combat effectiveness on the front lines.

This was announced by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Facebook.

News on the Ukraine war: Moscow confirms deadly air strike in Donbass

+++ 3.15 p.m .:

Russia confirmed the death of 63 soldiers after the Ukrainian rocket attacks in the Donbass on New Year’s night.

The missiles hit a temporary shelter in Makiivka, the Defense Ministry said in Moscow on Monday.

+++ 2.15 p.m .:

The people in Ukraine cannot be worn down by the constant Russian rocket and drone attacks.

An opinion poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology from December 4 to 27, 2022 shows that the majority of 85 percent of respondents are not ready to agree to territorial concessions.

Even among residents of eastern Ukraine, where fierce fighting is currently taking place, 80 percent oppose concessions.

News about the Ukraine war: Ukraine reports shooting down of all drones

+++ 12.50 p.m .:

According to the

news agency, Ukraine said on Monday (January 2) that it had shot down all Russian drones “in a massive wave of attacks”.

This came after Moscow launched airstrikes on civilian targets for the third straight night, intensifying its Lunar New Year air war.

News in the Ukraine war: Stoltenberg demands an increase in weapons production

+++ 11.20 a.m .:

In view of the protracted war in Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called for an increase in weapons production in the western military alliance.

“We need an enormous amount of ammunition.

We need spare parts," said the Norwegian in an interview with British radio station BBC 4 over the weekend.

The maintenance of weapons systems that have already been delivered to Ukraine is at least as important as the debate about other weapons.

NATO must be prepared to support Ukraine in the long term, Stoltenberg said.

There have been no signs from Russia that it has given up on its overriding goal of taking over Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian armed forces had the upper hand for several months.

But we also know that Russia has mobilized many new forces, many of whom are now being trained.” He added: “This indicates that they are ready to continue the war and may try to launch a new offensive.”

News in the Ukraine war: infrastructure of Kyiv attacked

+++ 8.10 a.m .:

The infrastructure was damaged again in attacks on Kiev.

There are electricity and heating failures, but the water supply is guaranteed, said Vitali Klitschko, the city's mayor, on Monday.

It is the fifth night in a row that Ukraine has been attacked by Russian combat drones.

Kyiv attacked again by Russian army: "The danger in the Kyiv region persists"

Update from January 2nd, 6:35 a.m .:

According to the military administration, the Ukrainian capital Kiev was attacked again on Monday night.

“The danger in the Kyiv region continues!

Our anti-aircraft forces are working on the targets," said Oleskiy Kuleba, head of the military administration of the Kyiv region.

The air defense had been activated.

The most important thing now is to keep calm and stay in the shelters until the air alert is over.

News in the Ukraine war: Russian troops shell inhabited settlements in Cherson

+++ 19:20:

According to the Ukrainian general staff, Russian troops are shooting at inhabited settlements in the Kherson region to destabilize the humanitarian situation and to force the local population to so-called “voluntary evacuation”.

The General Staff also reports that mobilization measures are being carried out in Crimea.

Military commissariats have begun examining lists of people who have not yet taken part in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and are subject to call-up for mobilization in 2023.

In addition, the Russian military continues to use civilian facilities for medical treatment of armed Russian soldiers.

News in the Ukraine war: Russia attacks a hotel in Kyiv on New Year's Eve

+++ 16.10:

The Russian Ministry of Defense justified the numerous attacks on Kiev on New Year's Eve and on New Year's Eve.

According to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, the attacks were aimed at "Ukraine's defense industrial complex".

The focus was on targets in which the "production of combat drones" would have been suspected.

According to the Russian authority, the goals have been "achieved" so that Ukraine will no longer be able to "attack" Russia in the near future.

Ukraine, on the other hand, says that a hotel where international journalists stayed was hit.

News in the Ukraine war: Attacks on Cherson on New Year's Eve

+++ 2:20 p.m .:

One person died in attacks on the liberated night of Cherson on New Year’s Eve.

Another was injured.

This is reported by the news portal

and refers to information from the head of the military administration of the region in southern Ukraine, Yaroslav Yanushevych.

The buildings of a children's hospital were also damaged in the seven Russian attacks.

According to Yanushevych, 700 window panes were also broken.

New Putin decree to increase the strength of the Russian army

+++ 12.20 p.m .:

At the beginning of the new year, a new decree came into force in Russia, which is intended to increase the number of employees under contract with the Russian military to over two million people.

, these include

around 1.15 million contract soldiers and conscripts, whose number increased by 137,000 after the decree.

The other military personnel are civilian personnel, such as administrative employees.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had already announced the creation of the new units in September, citing that the "NATO bloc" was threatening to move towards Russian borders.

Most recently, Putin called up around 300,000 reservists for a partial mobilization, which led to loud protests and a mass exodus among Russian men.

Secret service reports are also currently increasing, which predict that renewed mobilization could be imminent.

Ukraine-News: Klitschko calls on Germany to deliver Leopard 2 tanks

+++ 9.02 a.m .:

The mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, has asked Germany to deliver "Leopard 2" tanks to Ukraine.

“It will depend crucially on Germany that Leopard 2 tanks are finally delivered.

Without this type of tank, it will be difficult to recapture more areas in Ukraine,” Klitschko writes in a guest article in the

.

The politician also expects a new attack on Kyiv.

Russia is mobilizing more forces, up to 300,000 soldiers could tackle another attack on Ukraine.

"Kyiv was a target and Kyiv remains a target," writes Klitschko.

Update from Sunday, January 1, 6:22 a.m .:

Russia also attacked the Ukrainian capital Kiev from the air at the beginning of the new year.

About half an hour after midnight (local time, 11:30 p.m. CET), the Russian attacks hit two districts of the city, as Mayor Vitali Klitschko explained on Sunday in the online service Telegram.

News about the Ukraine war: Russia is preparing for a decisive battle

First report from Friday, December 30th:

According to British information, a Russian troop formation in a contested area in eastern Ukraine is likely to be given new leadership.

Lieutenant-General Yevgeny Nikiforov is likely to be in the process of assuming command of Russia's Western Forces Group (WGF), the UK MoD wrote in its regular intelligence update.

He would therefore be at least the fourth commander at the head of the association since the beginning of the Ukraine war.

According to British assessments, the WGF almost certainly has the task of holding Russia's right flank in the area around the cities of Kreminna and Swatove.

The Ukrainian military reported progress near Kreminna on Thursday (December 29).

An American think tank had previously announced that the Russian army was gathering troops in the Luhansk region and preparing for a decisive battle.

(cas/ska/kas with dpa/AFP)