UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, May 28 — Three men from the Kupiansk district are accused of torturing a 16-year-old boy during the Russian occupation of the district, reported the press service of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Law enforcement officials say that a 33-year-old “deputy head of criminal investigation” in the Russian occupation administration, a 28-year-old “acting district police inspector,” and a 28-year-old unemployed man allegedly detained a 16-year-old boy in the summer of 2022 in the Kupiansk district.
“In one of the settlements of the Kupiansk district in the summer of 2022, a 16-year-old boy was returning home. At that time, a car drove up to him, and three armed men dressed in military uniforms got out. They forced the man into the car and took him to a torture chamber set up in the premises of the Kupiansk police department. The victim was held there for 16 days,” law enforcement officials said.
The men reportedly beat the boy, suffocated him with a gas mask, and forced him to perform exhausting exercises. The Prosecutor’s Office says they hardly fed him and gave him only industrial water, forced him to clear the rubble after shelling and wash Russian military’s cars.
The Russians reportedly planned to get information from the teenager about pro-Ukrainian citizens and war veterans in the Kupiansk district.
Two suspects will be tried in absentia in Kharkiv for collaboration, and all men will be tried for violation of the laws and customs of war by prior conspiracy.
Since the Ukrainian army deoccupied most of the Kharkiv region, law enforcement uncovered 28 torture chambers here. It’s more torture chambers than in other Ukrainian regions.
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