A Russian soldier is suspected of torturing civilians with electric shocks following the bombing of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant

Prosecutors in Kherson have served a notice of suspicion in absentia to the commander of a Russian Armed Forces reconnaissance platoon who tortured civilians in Oleshky, which was flooded after the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was blown up. The occupier, along with his accomplices, illegally detained two men in a high-rise building, subjecting them to brutal torture.

This was reported by the Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the case file, in the summer of 2023, the 33-year-old suspect was on the left bank of the Kherson region. Together with other Russian military personnel, he was patrolling the flooded town of Oleshky in a motorboat.During one of these patrols, the occupiers unlawfully detained two local residents.

The civilians were taken to an apartment on the ninth floor of a high-rise building, where they were forcibly held for 10 days. They were not given enough food or water and were not allowed to relieve themselves. 

A Russian commander demanded information from one of the men about local volunteers, as well as information about his nephew. Every day, the victim was beaten and tortured with electric shocks by having wires attached to his fingers. To inflict greater suffering, they placed a wet rag under his feet. During one of the interrogations, the suspect wrapped an electrical cable around the man’s neck and choked him until he lost consciousness. 

The occupiers accused another civilian of mapping the Russian army’s firing positions and, under torture, tried to extract information about how he was passing intelligence to the Ukrainian Defense Forces. The man was systematically tortured with electric shocks and beaten haphazardly all over his body. As a result of the abuse, he sustained numerous severe injuries, including fractures of 11 ribs, the sternum, and both sides of the jaw, as well as lung contusions and burns. Due to a lack of medical care and infection of his wounds, the victim developed gangrene, which led to the amputation of a finger on his hand. 

It was not until late June 2023 that both victims were released. 

Earlier, the Kherson Prosecutor’s Office announced that the commander of the“Vyatic” special-purpose detachment of the Russian National Guard was suspected of brutal treatment of the civilian population. In June 2024, the occupier had already been sentenced by a Ukrainian court to 9 years in prison for a similar crime.

Юлія Калабайда