UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Apr 10 — The Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office reported that two Russians probably kidnapped and tortured the mother of a Ukrainian police officer; one of them, according to law enforcement, subjected her to sexual violence during the Izium occupation.

As the independent International commission of Inquiry on Ukraine reported, Russian crimes in the form of kidnapping civilians on the occupied territory are widespread and systemic.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, at the beginning of November 2024, there were 326 cases of sexual violence registered since the start of Russia’s all out-war, of which 209 were on sexual violence (of Russians) against women, 117 — against men, and 17 — against children.

According to the pre-trial investigation, in July 2022, two Russian soldiers came to the house where the woman lived.

“They forced her to take a warm cloth and go with them. The woman refused. The Russian commander started to choke her, so she fainted. They pushed the woman to the car trunk and drove her to the torture room, which was on the railway hospital territory,” said the Prosecutor’s Office.

One of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) militants systematically raped the woman, investigators say. Also, he put pressured her psychologically, threatening to kill her, take off her clothes, take a photo, and send it to her policeman son.

“During interrogation, Russians connected the wires to the victim’s legs and turned on the electricity. She was suffering from pain, falling down the floor, but she was forced to get up and feel the pain again,” said the Prosecutor’s Office.

Russians put on the gas mask and handcuffed her, hanging her up to the ceiling and beating her body with the belt, law enforcement said.

According to the investigation, Russians held the woman in the torture room from July 1 to July 10. Militants warned her that they will kill her if she tells anyone what happened. During this period, she tried to commit suicide because of her mental trauma.

“There was no air in the room (in the torture room), so to get fresh air the woman took one brick out of the wall. Militants gave her two buckets: one for a toilet, the other for porridge and bread,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.

The police also found out that the woman scratched her name, the torture days count, and what she had to go through on the wall with an old nail.

“Electric shock. Undressing. Pain,” the woman wrote. 

Two suspects are now wanted by Ukraine’s law enforcement. If found guilty, they could face from eight to twelve years in prison or a life sentence. The Prosecutor’s Office is still trying to identify all Russians involved in the crime.

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