UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, Aug 1 — In Vovchansk, the Russians kept and exploited residents for their purposes, forcing them to do hard labor. Residents of Vovchansk testify to this in a story published by Gwara Media.

Russian troops seized the north of the Kharkiv region on the first day of the full-scale invasion in 2022. At that time, the Russians set up a torture chamber at the aggregate plant in Vovchansk, where they held, tortured, and exploited city residents.

According to locals, even those with mobility problems were forced to work. Russians also forced the captives to dig mortar points for the military and to dig pits for street toilets. When the Ukrainian army deoccupied Staryi Saltiv in the Kharkiv region in May 2022, the Russians forced prisoners to dig trenches around the aggregate plant in Vovchansk and beyond for 12 hours a day. 

Among the prisoners at the plant were local PE teachers Roman and Viktor. One of them said that he weighed 72 kilograms before his capture and 60 kilograms after. The other said that he got older in the first two weeks [of labor], lost weight, and went gray.

“If you work hard, maybe you’ll have a shower,” the Russian military told the prisoners.

Locals said that for the first few days, the guards watched over the prisoners, but after the Russians said that any attempt to escape would be punishable by beating or shooting, the guards stopped watching them. 

On September 10, the Ukrainian army deoccupied the settlement, and the prosecutor’s office is investigating the war crimes of the Russians, which they did not have time to conceal completely.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), citing geolocation footage on July 28, reported that the Russian troops may have seized the entire aggregate plant in Vovchansk.

According to ISW, the published photos show Ukrainian drone strikes on a large accumulation of ammunition in the eastern part of the Vovchansk aggregate plant. Analysts assume these images indicate that the Russian troops may have wholly seized the plant.

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