Ukrainian police say they have found at least 25 torture chambers since the liberation of the Kharkiv region. The area around the city in eastern Ukraine has been in the hands of Russian soldiers for months.
Ukrainian citizens were allegedly detained and tortured in inhumane conditions in rooms. The head of the regional police Volodymyr Tymoshko said on Monday evening Facebook. Prisoners were allegedly given electric shocks. Fingers were broken in others.
Human Rights Watch has published a relationship about torture by the Russian army. In it, people from the city of Izium spoke of serious abuses. For example, they reported waterboarding, a notorious torture technique that gives victims the sensation of drowning.
The area around Kharkiv was occupied by Russian troops for months, but they withdrew due to a Ukrainian offensive in early September. According to police chief Tymoshko, the bodies of 920 civilians, including 25 children, have since been discovered. They would have been killed by Russian soldiers.
Ukraine says the Russians have committed war crimes in other occupied territories as well. Four hundred bodies were found after the withdrawal of Russian units from Bocha, a town near Kiev. Most of them were civilians. The investigation into their deaths is still ongoing.
