Ukrainian prosecutors have charged four members of the Russian National Guard (RNG) for torturing prisoners of war (POWs) at a detention center in the city of Kherson.
The Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) uncovered horrific practices inflicted upon POWs in the course of its investigation. These included relentless beatings, torture with electric shocks, waterboarding, sexual violence and mock executions. Moreover, the OPG discovered 11 other detention centers with torture chambers where both men and women were mistreated.
As a result of this probe, three RNG members were slapped with war crimes charges. The perpetrators were named as RNG Col. Aleksandr Naumenko and three of his subordinates – Aleksandr Bocharov, Anver Muksimov and Aleksandr Chilengirov. The four were charged in absentia with cruel treatment of civilians and violation of the laws of war.
Naumenko, the commanding officer of the detention center and his men were identified by victims themselves by means of photographs of the perpetrators' RNG unit. Investigators added that the four were also identified using information provided by the Security Service of Ukraine and telephone intercepts.
Russian President Vladimir Putin established the RNG back in 2016 to establish the various unit of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Separate from the Russian Armed Forces, the RNG is responsible for internal security and answers directly to the president.
Torture at Kherson detention center results in three deaths
Three individuals – two men and one woman – died at the detention center due to the beatings, with all of them denied medical attention. Seventeen other detainees reported being tortured with electric shocks to their genitals.
According to Ukrainian investigators, much of the violence was gratuitous and applied during interrogations to force confessions. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin wrote in a Facebook post: "Confessions were 'beaten out' of people about things they did not do."
The OPG recorded the testimony of one victim, 38-year-old Ukrainian Oleksii Sivak, during the latter's interview in the Ukrainian capital. The seaman turned activist faced brutal treatment following his August 2022 arrest, enduring beatings and electric shocks to his genitals.
According to Sivak, each question posed to him was either met with an electric shock or a physical blow. The interrogators would kick him and forcefully place him back on the chair if he collapsed from the shock and fell to the floor. The harrowing torture continued for about an hour, with only 30-second intervals of respite.
Sivak recounted how the Russian torturers took turns utilizing an electric dynamo machine to give him shocks, with one man asking questions while the others tortured him. His captors removed the knitted cap covering his eyes after the torture session to reveal their faces. They held a pistol to his head to extract a confession.
Despite this, he managed to recognize at least one of the individuals responsible for his torment. Sivak identified two guards and two intelligence servicemen who had arrested him from his home. According to him, one of the guards he identified did not bother to wear a mask while escorting him to the torture chamber.
While the OPG's findings show proof of Russian atrocities against POWs, Ukraine is not exactly clean.
During the early days of the conflict, Ukrainian soldiers were also involved in atrocities against their Russian counterparts. In particular, a video of Ukrainian military personnel shooting captured Russian POWs as they emerged from a prisoner van made the rounds on social media. (Related: Horrific video appears to show Ukrainians using chemical weapons against Russian troops.)
Visit WWIII.news for more news related to POWs in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Watch this footage of a prisoner exchange involving 106 Ukrainian soldiers being returned to Kyiv.
This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Are government detention centers forcing psychiatric medication on children?
Biden is putting migrant kids in cages and now 'AOC' doesn't care.
Sources include:
Please contact us for more information.