Ukraine Russia war updates: Horror photos of Russian torture chambers
As the Russian army is forced out of northeast Ukraine, grim photos have emerged of “torture chambers”. WARNING: Graphic content.
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WARNING: Graphic content.
Ghastly photos have emerged of Russian “torture chambers” after Ukraine liberated territories in the eastern part of the country.
More than 10 “torture rooms” were discovered in various towns in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday.
“As the occupiers fled, they also dropped the torture devices,” Mr Zelensky said.
“Even at the regular Kozacha Lopan railway station, they found a room for torture, found tools for electric torture,” he said.
Grim photos show steel cages allegedly used by Russians to house prisoners in a basement.
The makeshift prisons were purportedly used by Russian forces to subject people to “inhumane torture”. Ukrainian officials alleged that Soviet-era radio telephones had been used as a power source to shock prisoners.
Some of the images are too graphic to publish.
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“The Russian army tortured people in the cellar of the so-called ‘people’s militia’ in the town of Kozacha Lopan when it was under siege,” the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on social media.
“Representatives of the Russian Federation created a pseudo-law enforcement agency, in the basement of which a torture chamber was set up, where civilians were subjected to inhumane torture.
“During the inspection, documents confirming the functioning of the pseudo-police department and the device with which the occupiers tortured civilians with electric shock were seized.”
Electric shock torture
A horrific account of torture in the city of Balakliya was given by a resident who gave his name as Artem.
He told the BBC he was held by Russian forces for more than 40 days and tortured with electric shocks.
Artem said he could hear screams from other prisoners as they were also tortured.
In an apparent move to spread dread, the Russians allegedly turned off the building’s noisy ventilation to ensure the screams could be heard.
“They turned it off so everyone could hear how people scream when they are shocked with electricity,” Artem said.
“They did this to some of the prisoners every other day … They even did this to the women.”
Artem himself was also tortured.
“They made me hold two wires,” he said.
“There was an electric generator. The faster it went, the higher the voltage. They said, ‘If you let it go, you are finished.’ Then they started asking questions. They said I was lying, and they started spinning it even more and the voltage increased.”
The Kremlin hsd rejected allegations that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine’s Kharkiv province, calling the claims a “lie”.
In response to questions about Zelensky’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “It’s the same scenario as in Bucha. It’s a lie, and of course we will defend the truth in this story.”
‘Violent deaths’
Meanwhile, a mass burial site discovered after Kyiv’s forces recaptured the east Ukrainian town of Izyum.
The vast majority of the exhumed bodies showed signs of violent death, Ukraine’s regional administration head said on Friday.
“Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99 per cent showed signs of violent death,” Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on social media.
“There are several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person is buried with a rope around his neck,” he added.
“Obviously, these people were tortured and executed.”
‘Meaningless offensives’
The military situation for Russia has deteriorated in Ukraine’s northeast.
Ukraine last week launched a massive counter-attack in the Kharkiv Oblast, catching the invading army off-guard.
Russia’s armed forces were forced to retreat and Ukraine recaptured about 2500sq km of territory in the Kharkiv region.
Since then, Russian forces have been conducting “meaningless offensive operations” around Donetsk City and Bakhmut instead of focusing on defending against Ukrainian counteroffensives, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported.
Russian troops have been attacking Bakhmut and various villages near Donetsk City – areas of high emotional significance to residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic – but of little strategic importance.
“The Russians are apparently directing some of the very limited reserves available in Ukraine to these efforts rather than to the vulnerable Russian defensive lines hastily thrown up along the Oskil River in eastern Kharkiv Oblast,” ISW reported in its daily assessment of the Russian campaign.
Russia has also failed to rush large-scale reinforcements to eastern Kharkiv and the Luhansk Oblasts, leaving most of Russian-occupied northeastern Ukraine highly vulnerable to continuing Ukrainian counteroffensives.
The latest reports indicate that Ukrainian forces are expanding positions east of the Oskil River and north of the Siverskyi Donets River.
Their position could allow them to envelop Russian troops holding around Lyman.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Ukraine Russia war updates: Horror photos of Russian torture chambers
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