Vladimir Putin’s soldiers tortured Ukrainian army personnel and civilians across 10 locations in the recently liberated town of Izium, according to an investigative report.
What Happened: After a series of interviews with survivors, an Associated Press investigation found that torture in the city was "arbitrary, widespread, and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers."
The developments came after Ukraine’s military’s counteroffensive forced thousands of Russian forces last month to retreat from the captured region. Following the liberation, several reports of atrocities surfaced online. Ukraine authorities said last month they discovered a mass grave containing 440 bodies in Izium.
The AP report notes the discovery of 10 separate sites where torture occurred, including an underground jail, a police station, a kindergarten, and a sunless pit.
"They beat me with sticks. They hit me with their hands, they kicked me, they put out cigarettes on me, they pressed matches on me," Mykola Mosyakyn, a 38-year-old Ukrainian soldier, told the publication. "They said, 'Dance,' but I did not dance. So they shot my feet," he added.
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Mosyakyn was reportedly captured and tortured several times. He told AP that Russians had rooms specifically for waterboarding and electrocution at one of the torture sites located at a school.
Ukrainian intelligence officials also revealed that Russian forces repeatedly raped the women. “Women were held in the garage closest to the soldiers’ quarters. Their screams came at night, according to Mosyakyn and Kotsar, who were both held at the clinic at different times,” it added.
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