Blindfolded, arms and legs tied, and lying in the corner of the torture chamber, Dima could only hear his co-prisoner screaming and his ribs cracking as the man was beaten to death next to him.
The soldiers growled as they tied up the prisoner, Kolya, in a “swallow” or “swallow” position, a disgracefully known method of torture long preferred by Russian forces.
Then they went to work, as they always did in this makeshift cell under the train station in Trostyanets, a northeastern Ukrainian city near the Russian border.
Dima remembers how Kolya, who apparently publicly condemned Moscow, was subjected to particularly brutal violence. Even after Kolya was dragged into the bloodied room, he refused to stop cursing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fueling the relentless blows that fell on him.
It wasn’t until he fell silent that his boots creaked out of the cell. Then Dima heard a bubble over Kolya’s breath.
“I shouted to the guards, ‘He’s dying, he’s dying.’ I tried to push a bottle of water towards him with my legs tied “, says Dima, visibly worried.
“All they did was laugh and say, ‘If he dies, he dies.’ All Ukrainians must die. I kept calling Kolya, but he didn’t answer, “added the part-time fitter.
Trapped in a purgatory of darkness, erased by time, Dima believes that Kolya was killed on the second or third day of his captivity – but he can not say for sure. “They kept the body next to me until the morning, when they took it out and brought two more people,” he added.
For 10 days, survivors of this room – all civilians – say they have been starved, tortured, subjected to numerous false executions, threatened with rape and forced to sit in their own excrement by soldiers under Trostyanets station.
This is just part of a series of new testimonies obtained from The Independent, which provide new evidence of possible war crimes in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy.
Dima is standing in front of the station, where he was detained and tortured, which is now a battle
(Belle Tree)
The Independent spoke to two of the survivors: Dima, the first prisoner, and Andrei, who said he was abducted by soldiers a few days later.
Dima says Kolya was prisoner number four of at least eight civilians held there during the month-long Russian occupation of the city.
He shows us the site, located in the basement below the main ticket hall of the station. It was only a few feet wide and still stained with blood.
Three of the detainees are dead or missing: Koyla was killed, and two others, including a military veteran, were beaten almost unconscious before being taken away. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
Andrei, prisoner number six, says he was stabbed in the left leg, stripped and threatened with genital mutilation and rape.
Andrew shows the wounds inflicted on his arms and hands by tying and beating for several days
(Belle Tree)
At one point, the 33-year-old man said, Russian soldiers struck him in the head with an electric shock. The beatings were so brutal that he begged his captors to kill him.
His wrists, legs and ankles still bear the mark of torture, and he has lost sensation in his right arm.
“It was a nightmare. That was the worst thing that ever happened to me, “he added in a trembling voice.
Moscow has repeatedly and vehemently denied targeting civilians or committing war crimes in Ukraine, saying allegations of torture, rape, summary executions and killings were “monstrous forgeries” aimed at tarnishing the reputation of its forces.
But The Independent has collected dozens of testimonies pointing to possible violations of international law in many parts of the country, most recently in Trostyanets.
Even then, he feared that the rail torture chamber was just the tip of the iceberg.
In fact, the full extent of the month-long reign of Russian terror here has just come to light, as terrified civilians – worried that the city may be recaptured – are only now revealing what happened.
Trostyanets in the northeastern region of Ukraine Sumy
(The Independent / Datawrapper)
These stories are part of a growing body of evidence of alleged war crimes across the country and reflect horrific stories told The Independent in places including Bucha and Makariv in the Kyiv region, more than 450km away, showing that the Russian army is used abductions, torture, and summary executions were widespread.
On the outskirts of the capital alone, Ukrainian police said on Friday they had collected the bodies of more than 900 civilians so far – 95 per cent of whom had apparently been shot.
Karim Khan QC, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who recently visited Bucha, one of the bloodiest places northwest of the capital, went so far as to declare Ukraine a “crime scene”.
But investigators have only scratched the surface with Sumi.
Richard Weir, a crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW) who investigates crimes in Ukraine, says the Independent allegations in Trostyanets were “a tragic addition to a growing list of abuses and blatant war crimes.” carried out by Russian forces during the occupation of Ukrainian towns and villages ”.
“These incidents must be thoroughly and independently investigated, and those who are responsible must be held accountable,” he said.
Dima and Andrei say they decided to talk about what happened to them to help with the research. But it is difficult for them to open up.
“I’m still scared,” says Andrei. “I see their faces in my nightmares,” he added quietly.
I see their faces in my nightmares
Andrew, a survivor of torture
Three weeks after Russian troops left Trostyanets, police received a call: another mutilated body had been found.
Bloody and bruised, the body of a man was found in the nearby village of Boromlya, next to a building used as a Russian base, just a day before The Independent came to the area.
A local police officer investigating the cases showed us photos of the body and others found in the Trostyanets area. The bodies are almost unrecognizable, their faces are killed in a bloody mess. “They are all civilians, some were in the army, but they were retired,” he said.
Before the war, Trostyanets, a sleepy 20,000-strong rural town, was best known for its chocolate factory, summer music festivals and once home to Tchaikovsky, who is said to have composed his first symphonic work there.
Now it’s an explosive, muddy hellish landscape.
Due to his proximity to Russia, Trostyanets was stormed in the first few days of Vladimir Putin’s invasion on February 24. The full fury of the Russian forces quickly focused on him and the surrounding cities, as they were a strategic gateway to the rest of the country.
Trostyanets is located at the crossroads between the main route north to Sumy, the capital of the wider region, and the road south to key cities such as Poltava.
Troops occupied the town and surrounding villages for 30 days before a fierce counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces led to the withdrawal of Russian forces on March 25 and repositioning further east.
Destroyed Russian artillery stands in the mud in front of Trostyanets station – the site of a fierce battle
(Belle Tree)
Local authorities told The Independent that the railway torture chamber was just one of several cases of ill-treatment, violence and murder they were investigating. The men regularly disappeared during the Russian occupation.
Two police officers said they knew of five cases of bodies showing traces of torture or gunshot wounds in and around Trostyanets. The last body, found a few days ago in Bromolya – a few kilometers north of Trostyanets, has “knife wounds to the legs and arm.” Two other bodies were found in Bilka, another nearby village.
Both officers spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. They remained in Trostyanets during the occupation, hiding as civilians in the city and worried about the consequences if Russian forces recaptured the area.
“Many of the bodies have knife wounds, all with their hands tied or glued, beaten and bruised. Some were shot in the head, one of the bodies was covered with machine gun fire, “one police officer recalled.
The brutality inflicted on the civilian population here not only underscores the Kremlin’s book on Ukraine, but reveals the last chaotic and desperate days of Russian occupation of the region.
Dima says they were detained because the soldiers wanted intelligence, despite the fact that both he and Andrei have no military education and were only part-time workers.
They say the soldiers wanted to know the location of Ukrainian forces’ positions and the identities of territorial defense and police officers in the city. They also wanted to know about the back roads their soldiers could take as key bridges were blown up.
So Dima and Andrei say that the group was beaten every day, starved and denied permission to use the toilet – leaving them to sit for days in their own excrement. Dima says that he was subjected to five different fake executions, in which he was taken out of the cell, made to kneel on the floor, put his hands on the wall and shot next to his head.
“In the end, I didn’t know if I was alive or dead. Then they kept shouting: “Where are the Ukrainians? Where are the Ukrainians? ”He says.
Until the end, I didn’t know if I was alive or dead
Dima, a victim of torture
Andrei says he was first abducted on March 18, two days after Dima was abducted. After daring to receive supplies, Russian forces buttoned him up and dropped him off in an armored car.
He was first taken to a chocolate factory, which locals say was also used as a torture center, where a soldier stabbed his left leg. Andrei says that he was asked similar questions to Dima. When he couldn’t answer, …
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