Russian torture chambers in Ukraine

In the town of Balakliya, which the Russians occupied for six months, forensics specialists, human rights activists, criminal law experts, and Ukrainian investigators found extensive evidence of war crimes and torture. During the Russian occupation, the Russian troops used a two-story building named "BalDruk" (after a former publishing company which had an office there before the war) as a prison and a torture center. The Russians also used the police station building across the street for torture. Around 40 people were held in torture chambers during the occupation and subjected to various forms of violence, including electrocution, beatings, and mutilation. One of those arrested (because he had a picture of his brother in a Ukrainian army uniform in his home) and tortured reported hearing screams through the walls. At least several Ukrainian prisoners died as a result of the torture.[4][5] Aleksander Kulik, head of the information department of the Derhachi city council, stated that several young women were subjected to gang rapes that lasted for several days.[6]

Another Russian torture chamber was found in the liberated village of Kozacha Lopan, located at the local railway station.[7][8]

In Izyum, which the Russian army occupied on 1 April 2022, and which Ukrainian forces liberated in September 2022, journalists for the Associated Press found ten torture sites. An investigation found that both Ukrainian civilians and POWs were "routinely" subject to torture. At least eight men died while under torture.[9][10]

In July 2022, The Guardian reported on torture chambers in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region based on the testimony of a 16-year-old boy who was held in one of them beginning in April. The boy was arrested by Russian soldiers while trying to leave the occupied city of Melitopol because he had a video on his phone from social media, which featured Russian soldiers expressing defeatist attitudes towards Russia's invasion. He was held in a makeshift prison in Vasylivka. According to his testimony, he saw rooms where torture took place, as well as bloodstains and soaked bandages, and heard the screams of the people being tortured. The torture involved electric shocks and beating and could last for several hours.[12]

A Russian makeshift prison that functioned as an FSB torture chamber was discovered in the liberated Kherson city, too. Ukrainian authorities estimated the number of people who had been imprisoned there at some point to be in the thousands. Among other instruments of torture, FSB officials used electric shocks against the victims.[13]

After the liberation of Kherson by Ukrainian forces from Russian occupation Ukrainian investigators discovered Russian torture chambers established especially for children. According to testimony, the children were denied food and given water only every other day, were told their parents had abandoned them and forced to clean up the blood spilled by torture in the adjacent torture cells for adults.[14][15][16]

Overall Ukrainian authorities uncovered ten torture chambers in Kherson region, four of them in the city itself.[15]

In the Kharkiv region, which was liberated during the 2022 Ukrainian eastern counteroffensive authorities also found evidence of child torture, including two in the town of Balakliya. One of the kids who had been held in the torture chamber described being cut with a knife, burnt with heated metal and subjected to mock executions.[17]

Writing for Time Magazine, journalist Peter Pomerantsev commented on the systemic nature of the torture, speculating that the consistency of methods across different regions meant that torture was a policy of the Russian army rather than rogue soldiers acting against orders.[18]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that more than ten torture chambers, along with mass graves, had been discovered in the Kharkiv areas liberated by Ukrainian troops.[7][19] Zelenskyy also said: "As the occupiers fled they also dropped the torture devices".[8] Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office stated that "Representatives of the Russian Federation created a pseudo-law enforcement agency, in the basement of which a torture chamber was set up, where civilians were subjected to inhumane torture."[8]

Ukrainian prosecutors have opened investigations into Russia's use of torture chambers.[20]

• Izolyatsia prison