The resistance movement has alarmed the occupying forces in Kherson, locals say, leading to renewed crackdown on dissent.
A man, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Telegraph that he had recently been detained for three days, beaten, verbally assaulted and forced to make a propaganda video in which he relinquished his role in the Territorial Defense Force.
His neighbor described the moment she saw him snatched from the street in broad daylight by a group of armed men.
“It happened very quickly and unexpectedly. They dragged him by the arms in the car and took him away, “said 18-year-old Nastya. “I was afraid for him, what would happen to him and whether he would stay alive at all.
“He did not resist, because at the moment in our city, resistance or disagreements can end badly. Kidnappings happen very often. They kidnap people who go to rallies, volunteers or territorial defense fighters. “
Russian forces are believed to be holding hundreds of people in similar arrests in the Kherson region.
“There are about 600 people in the Kherson region who are locked in basements, in specially equipped rooms, in torture chambers,” Tamila Tasheva, Ukraine’s permanent representative to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, said on Tuesday.
Among those detained were activists, local journalists and prisoners of war, and many were taken by Russian forces to Crimea, she added.
In Kherson, resistance posters are pasted on buildings and street signs. Nastya said it was impossible to walk down the street without seeing at least one. “They are everywhere,” she said. “It gives us hope.”
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