The Washington Post reporters talked with the residents of Kherson, who said what happened in the city during the occupation.
According to local residents, in Kherson, the Russian military used prison for minors for torture detainees. “If there is hell on Earth, then he was here,” this place is described by 48 -year -old Sergei, who lives opposite the prison.
Eyewitnesses said that cars came to the gray three -story building around the clock around the clock, from which people with bags on their heads were pulled out. Some of them after a while the Russian military released, exhausted and beaten, while others transferred to other prisons. What happened to these people later is unknown.
Russians detained Ukrainians for anything – from “wrong” words and clothes to tattoos. “They grabbed everyone they could get to: partisans, activists, anyone,” said a local resident Larisa.
It is still impossible to accurately evaluate the scale of the detentions, but the head of the Kherson Regional Council, Alexander Samoilenko, believes that we are talking about thousands of prisoners. “On any day, 600 people were in Russian torture. Many people were missing. It was a nightmare,” he said. According to Samoilenko, he fears that Kherson may be among cities such as Bucha, Irpen and Izum, where the evidence of numerous crimes of the Russian military was discovered.
64 -year -old Alexander Kuzmin – one of those who survived the captivity, said that in prison the FSB officers with a hammer soaked his leg. While in the cell, he heard the cries of other people. Residents of neighboring houses confirmed that they heard the detainees in prison: “Everyone could hear torture, screams, cries.”
Kuzmin told reporters about the cellmate, a young man who was detained for helping local residents to get hryvnias. His Russians tortured him with electric shock, attaching wires to nipples and genitals.
The Washington Post article also contains evidence of the murders of the detainees. 35-year-old Andrei said that he knows at least one case. According to him, the Russian military shot a man who refused to kneel. “They left his corpse in the cell for 24 hours,” Andrei said. Other eyewitnesses said that the military led people to the courtyard, after which shots were heard.
Locals also saw how the Russian military had fun. They bought alcohol in the nearest stores and brought women involved in prostitution. According to former prisoners, the Russians randomly shot in the building and even threw hand grenades.
“We terribly wanted to kill them, but we had to smile, because we knew that one wrong word could bring to this prison,” said a resident of Kherson Sergey.