Ukrainians Used Electric Shock Torture on Captive Russian Soldiers – Eyewitnesses

DONETSK (Sputnik) – Ukrainian security forces electrocuted, starved and beat Russian prisoners of war with hammers, two eyewitnesses told Sputnik.

Vladislav Yegilnitsky, a member of the Donetsk People’s Republic armed forces who survived Ukrainian captivity, said Ukrainians routinely beat and maimed detainees at a prison dubbed the Gym.

"They used torture. Their favorite tool was a hammer. They slammed fingers with a hammer and used electric current," the soldier said.

Mikhail Yanko, a soldier with the Lugansk People’s Republic armed forces, confirmed to Sputnik that he too had seen Ukrainians torture prisoners at the Gym. He said a prisoner’s ration consisted of a piece of bread no bigger than a matchbox.

Captives were held in an unheated room, Yegilnitsky said. They sat huddled under rugs and were called up to a nearby room where they were tortured.

"This went on week after week. They were called up one by one to the adjacent room from where screaming was heard all the time," he said.

Russian nationals had it the worst, Yegilnitsky added. He said the Ukrainian security agency SBU interrogated Russian soldiers.

"They were treated differently at different stages but, as far as I know, they were always treated very badly… As to the Gym, they said they had nothing else to fear because it was plain hell," he said.

A UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry on Ukraine considers both sides of the conflict to be responsible for violations of the international humanitarian law. In several cases, it said, Ukrainian armed forces shot, wounded, tortured and executed Russian prisoners of war, which they consider to be war crimes.