Occupiers set up a secret torture chamber in Kherson police station

In the occupied Kherson region, the Russians set up a detention center for Ukrainian prisoners in the Kalanchak police station. According to human rights activists, dozens of abducted civilians were illegally detained there at different times, and in the fall of 2022, at least 52 Ukrainians were held in the detention center at the same time.

This is stated in a study by the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIPHR), which collected testimonies from former prisoners.

According to human rights activists, after the occupation of Kalanchak, the Russians used the local police station and a temporary detention center to hold abducted residents of Kherson region. People were kept in overcrowded cells, forced to sing the Russian national anthem, perform forced labor, and subjected to physical and psychological pressure.

The authors of the study pay special attention to the role of collaborator Serhiy Shcheglov, who in 2022 became the head of the occupation police station in Kalanchak. It was after his appointment, according to eyewitnesses, that systematic abductions and persecution of local residents began in the community.

Former prisoners said that the detention center was designed for only a few dozen people, but in the fall of 2022, more than fifty people were held there. Due to overcrowding, some prisoners were forced to sleep on the floor and under the bunks.

Witnesses also reported torture, beatings with stun guns, threats, and inhumane conditions. According to the prisoners, some people were held without any documents or official charges, and Russian inspectors later claimed that such a place of detention did not actually exist in any documentation.

Human rights activists emphasize that the story of the Kalanchak police department demonstrates the mechanisms of the Russian system of illegal detention of civilians in the occupied territories of Ukraine and can become important evidence in the investigation of war crimes.

Recently, the Security Service of Ukraine detained another former guard of a Russian torture chamber that operated during the occupation of Kherson.

Андрій Колісніченко