Ukrainian nationalists torture POWs for pleasure - LPR militiaman

Members of Ukrainian nationalistic battalions get pleasure from torturing prisoners-of-war, said Lugansk People’s Republic militiaman Ruslan who recently returned from Ukrainian captivity.

 

Ruslan said that he was taken prisoner on March 20, after he had suffered three gunshot wounds to the back, shrapnel wounds and brain concussion. In captivity, he was physically abused.

 

“They bound me to a tree, doused with cold water and beat me terribly. I was tied to a tree for two days, naked, hung by the neck and collar bones, and subjected to terrible tortures. They tried to cut off my ear, but later gave it up.  I had four fractured dislodged ribs; they did not provide medical aid, they just stopped the bleeding wound with a piece if cloth. They kept me in the dark; simply they got pleasure from it. Torturing was interesting to them. I was captured by the SS Galichina battalion. Things might have been different if my captors were Ukrainian army servicemen,” the LPR militiaman said.

 

He said that the nationalistic battalion had all sorts of people.

 

“There were many who had Latvian, Georgian (Caucasian) and Ukrainian accent. <...> I was born in Crimea and they have a biased attitude to natives of Crimea. For Ukraine, I’ve betrayed it twice,” he added.

 

Ruslan returned to the Republic after a prisoner exchange with Kiev in early November.

 

Over 150 LPR servicemen have returned from Ukrainian captivity since the beginning of the special military operation in February. The LPR ombudsperson said that more than 100 of them had been physically abused.

 

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance. The LPR militia and Russian armed forces fully liberated the LPR territory from Ukrainian armed formations on July 3.

 

The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014.  The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.

 

The Lugansk People’s Republic became a part of Russia on September 30, 2022 after the unification referendum.*i*v