22 torture chambers found in liberated Kharkiv Oblast; people were brought to Russia for torture

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — THURSDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2022, 21:48 

Law enforcement officers have discovered 22 torture chambers in the liberated territories of Kharkiv Oblast.

Source: Volodymyr Tymoshko, the head of the Main Department of the National Police in Kharkiv Oblast, during a briefing on Thursday, cited by the Interfax-Ukraine news outlet

Quote: "22 places of torture have been established. This is corroborated by the testimony of witnesses or victims who experienced them."

Details: He specified that torture chambers were discovered in the settlements of Vovchansk (2), Kupinask (4), Shevchenkove (2), Izium (4), Kozacha Lopan (3), Lyptsi, Velykyi Burluk, Pisky-Radkivski, and Borova.

According to Tymoshko, it is impossible at present to give the total number of people who were tortured, as some of them are currently in the Russian Federation.

The head of the Main Department of the National Police in Kharkiv Oblast has also reported that the police have information about occupiers deporting people to Russia, torturing them there, and then returning them to Ukraine.

"They [the occupiers -ed.] have a place in Shebekino (Belgorod Oblast, Russia) where they hold our military personnel and police officers captive. There, they have also tortured people… A few days ago, we recovered the bodies of two soldiers who had been tortured to death. We know for sure that they were taken through Hoptivka to Belgorod, but only the bodies were returned [meaning the people were taken alive and returned dead - ed.]. That is, most probably, they were tortured in the Russian Federation. There are people’s testimonies that say that bodies were taken to Russia as well," Tymoshko said.

He reported that some of the policemen that stayed in the occupied territories have also been tortured. "We have employees who are victims; they were tortured and held captive in pits, etc.," Tymoshko said.

He also noted that the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation suspects that 22 police officers went over to the side of the occupiers. He added that the police fired 111 people who did not return to service after exercising their permission to take their families abroad during the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Oleksandr Volobuyev, the head of the Main Department of the State Emergency Service in Kharkiv Oblast, reported that 15 of his employees were tortured over the period of the occupation.

Background: 

• On 16 September, Ihor Klymenko, Head of the National Police of Ukraine, reported that a total of ten torture chambers had been discovered in the liberated territory of Kharkiv Oblast.
• On 17 September, it was discovered that the Russian army had tortured people in the cellar of the so-called "people’s militia" in the town of Kozacha Lopan when it was under occupation.   
• On 23 September, it was revealed that law enforcement officers had found 18 places in Kharkiv Oblast where the occupiers tortured Ukrainian citizens, and they had established the identities of over 1,000 Russian military personnel who committed crimes in the occupied territories.

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