DPR militants set fire to and raped residents of Mykolaiv region

Three Russian militants who set up a torture chamber in Mykolaiv region in 2022 and tortured civilians received sentences in absentia - up to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property. The court found that they had set up a torture chamber in a private house in Oleksandrivka and abused civilians along with other occupants.

This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism with reference to the court verdict.

Three militants from the Donetsk People's Republic - 69-year-old Serhiy Yesipov, 49-year-old Oleksiy Teslenko and 53-year-old Andriy Kolobov - organized a torture chamber in the village of Oleksandrivka in Mykolaiv region in 2022.

They kidnapped civilian men, tortured, beat and raped them. On June 23, the Snihuriv District Court found them guilty in absentia of violating the laws and customs of war, and Teslenko and Kolobov were also convicted of treason. Sentence: Yesipov - 12 years, the other two - 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.

The court found that the convicts served in the 127th rifle regiment of the mobilization reserve of the 1st army corps of the so-called dpr and, together with other occupants, abducted people, kept them in inhumane conditions and abused them. The torture chamber was set up in a private house with a red roof on the outskirts of Oleksandrivka.

Among the victims are four men who were illegally detained and tortured. One of them said that he was thrown into an iron cage that looked like a dog cage, then transported to a house where he was beaten, tortured with a stun gun, doused with diesel fuel and tried to set fire to. He was also raped with a shovel handle. The man still needs the help of a psychologist because of his experience.

Another man was beaten, threatened with having his fingers chopped off, beaten with a rifle butt and tortured with electric shocks. He was forced to work in the garden. The third man, a former National Police officer, was detained on the road while he was traveling with his family. He was strangled and beaten in a torture chamber.

Other perpetrators of these crimes include Russian soldiers with call signs Ramazan, Afghan, Odesa, Black, K1, Shilo, and VDV. The verdict has not yet entered into force.

Law enforcement officers have identified another Russian executioner who tortured a woman during the occupation of the Snihuriv community in Mykolaiv region. In May 2022, he and other occupants kidnapped a 52-year-old local resident, blindfolded her, forced her to move through mined territory, doused her with fuel and threatened to burn her. The woman was subsequently held in the building of the seized police station, which the invaders turned into an illegal prison for civilians.

Анна Бальчінос