Was forced to kneel by the man’s grave – then they shot

Eleven months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the evidence is growing that Russian forces have violated international laws on warfare and the treatment of the civilian population.

So far, the prosecution has prepared a legal process for over a thousand cases in the Kherson region, reports Reuters. They have spoken to several civilians who claim they are subjected to torture by Russian forces.

Threatened with execution

Oksana Minenko (44) from the formerly occupied city of Kherson says that in the spring of 2022 she was arrested by masked soldiers three times. She also describes the torture she was allegedly subjected to during one of the interrogations.

– When you have a bag over your head and you are hit, it creates a vacuum that means you cannot breathe. You cannot defend yourself. Then they started pulling out my nails. One pain turned into another, she says.

Minenko’s husband, Oleksiy, was a soldier in the Ukrainian army and was killed defending the Antonivkiy Bridge on the first day of the war.

During his funeral a week later, the soldiers appeared at the grave site and forced Minenko to kneel next to his grave. Then they fired automatic weapons at her.

– At this point I closed my eyes. I heard shots and felt the bullets whiz by. I asked for Olekseij to pick me up. That all this should be over, she tells Reuters.

Minenko believes the Russians were interested in her because of her husband’s military background. The 44-year-old accountant says that during subsequent questioning she was knocked unconscious, but she never lost consciousness. Nor was she raped.

– At one point I was like a piece of raw meat. A living corpse, she says. She says that she needed plastic surgery on her face afterwards.

Investigates 58,000 cases

Neither Reuters, TV 2 nor other media have the opportunity to independently verify the alleged torture, but the main prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague states that Ukraine is a scene of war crimes.

Ukraine is investigating over 58,000 possible cases of war crimes.

These include murders, kidnappings, arbitrary arrests, torture, bomb attacks against civilian targets and sexual assaults.

– The most common form of torture is electric shock. Current-carrying clips are attached to the genitals or ears. This has been done systematically to obtain the explanations the Russians want, says Andrej Kovalenko to Reuters. He is the prosecutor responsible for the investigation of war crimes in the Kherson region.

– They beat people with batons or wooden sticks. We have also found gas masks that were used to suffocate people, Kovalenko continues.

In addition, there are allegations of overcrowded cells without ventilation and a lack of food and water.

The electric shock

35-year-old Andrej will only be referred to by his first name. The Russians suspected him of being part of the Ukrainian resistance movement and hiding weapons from them.

He tells how the torture with electric shock took place.

– It has wires and clips that conduct electricity. They took me in and removed the tape they had bound my hands with. Then they placed me against the wall and undressed me, he tells Reuters.

– They attached electrical wires to my genitals and gave me electric shocks. They asked a lot of questions and I answered some. This lasted quite a long time. I only remember fragments, he says.

The Russians moved the wires from his genitals to his ears and gave him another shock. But then he passed out.

He says that he was also hit in the back in a way that made bruises shaped like a Z.

Reuters is shown around premises in Kherson that were allegedly used as torture chambers during the occupation. There are plastic tarpaulins on the floor. These were used as beds.

– On average, people were brought in for questioning once every day, Jaroslav Manko, from the local prosecutor’s office, told Reuters.

During a visit to one of the basement premises in December, the journalist from Reuters could smell the stench of excrement. The windows were blocked to prevent daylight, and small prayers and messages to the family outside were scrawled on the wall.

– They screamed. Constant

Liudmyla Shumkova is a lawyer in the health sector. She says that she and her sister (53) were imprisoned because the Russians thought her sister’s son was a member of the resistance movement.

She says that the men were treated the worst, but also that some women received brutal treatment.

– The men were treated terribly. They screamed. It was constant. Weekday. It could last two or three hours, she says.

A policewoman they shared a cell with was brutally beaten, and they threatened to take her daughter from her, cut her up and hand her back piece by piece.

– They tortured her. We took care of her as best we could. She was blue and black. They tied her up, gave her an electric shock and beat her with a baton, says Shumkova.

Kovalenko says that they have found torture chambers that were run by Russian special units trained in torture methods.

– Those who have training in this are units in the Russian National Guard and the FSB, he says.

58,000 cases

Ukraine is investigating over 58,000 potential Russian war crimes. Since Kherson was occupied for so long, many of the cases are from here. Local authorities are said to have located ten places in the region which are said to have been used for illegal detention and interrogation.

70 people have been identified as suspected war criminals, and 30 have been charged.

So far, the prosecution has an overview of 200 people who have allegedly been subjected to torture, and 400 who have been illegally imprisoned in Kherson alone. 540 people are still missing from the region.

Accusing both ways

Russian authorities have not responded to Reuters’ inquiries, but Russia has always denied that it commits war crimes, or that it aims to target civilians.

They also accuse Ukraine of committing war crimes, including by executing prisoners of war.

The UN Commission of Inquiry will present a new report in March this year.

In November, they stated that they had evidence that both sides had tortured prisoners of war. However, the Russians’ use of torture was described as “systematic”.