UKRAINE, KUPIANSK, Dec. 29 — A serviceman of the Russian forces, along with representatives of illegal armed groups and local collaborators aged 21 to 49, allegedly tortured civilians and illegally detained them in the occupied district police station in Kupiansk, said the National Police of Ukraine.
The Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office has issued an indictment for the group on a charge of violation of the laws and customs of war. Two of the defendants are additionally charged with collaboration.
Between March and September 2022, during the Russian occupation of Kupiansk, a pseudo-law enforcement structure created by the Russians operated in the city.
Preliminary data indicate that at least 150 Ukrainian citizens were illegally detained in the detention center. Two people have died, and 10 are considered missing.
One of the indicted took on a leadership role and headed the so-called “Internal Affairs Department of the Kharkiv Region,” police says. To organize the work of the repressive organ, he allegedly recruited other individuals who later served as “chief of the criminal investigation department,” “chief of the convoy service,” and other “police unit leaders,” as well as “temporary detention center employees.”
Using physical violence and psychological pressure, Russians and collaborators extracted information about the locations of Ukrainian military units and the movement of their equipment.
More than 90 victims of the group have been identified so far, police said.
Among them are teachers, rescuers, war veterans, government officials, volunteers, businessmen, and other civilians. These people told prosecutors and police about the abuse they suffered during the imprisonment.
“There were constant screams throughout the station. You could hear others being beaten, and it could last for days,” said one of them.
The Prosecutor’s Office reports that the detainees were fed mainly leftovers from the Russian military’s meals. Some of them lost up to 20 kilograms during their detention.
People were beaten with hands, feet, and sticks and electrocuted.
“After the electric shocks, I had a surgery on my hands. But I still haven’t regained feeling in my hands fully,” said another person who’s been in Russian detention in Kupiansk.
During the torture, people were forced to give false testimonies about themselves and their friends, and to confess to “collaborating” with the Ukrainian forces, prosecutors say. If they refused, they were allegedly threatened with murder, torture of their loved ones, or detention of their relatives.
Prosecutors say the Russian soldier, along with his partners, tied one of the men to a metal grate in the middle of the courtyard with plastic ties keeping his hands above his head, and he hung there for hours, unable to even sit down.
Almost every day, all the prisoners were forced to sing the Russian anthem, prosecutors add.
The Prosecutor’s Office reported that in September 2022, during the Ukrainian offensive in the Kharkiv region, Russians began to leave Kupiansk and left the cells with the prisoners locked. Left to fend for themselves, people broke the bars, found their documents, and finally escaped.
Some of the detained are still being held captive in the occupied territories, prosecutors say.
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