“They used pliers or some kind of medieval finger-crushers”: A Ukrainian man recounted his more than one year in captivity under the occupiers
Source: Slidstvo Info
Author: Yana Korniychuk
“They detained me on March 30. I spent a month under occupation. To give you an idea, I watched the group that came to arrest me for a few minutes. Because I wasn’t paying close attention, I didn’t immediately realize they had come for me,” Volodymyr recalls. Along with three other men, he spoke in the Slidstvo.Info documentary “He, Too: Stories of Ukrainian Men Abused by Russians” about the sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers.
This is covered in a “Slidstvo.Info” article: Rape, electric shocks to the genitals, and threats of castration: what four Ukrainian men endured during the Russian occupation.
“ALCATRAZ AND AZKABAN”: “THEY SHACKLED ME AND STRETCHED MY BODY INTO A STAR SHAPE”
Vladimir was held in Russian captivity for over a year: first in a torture chamber in Kherson, then briefly in Crimea, and later in penal colonies and pretrial detention centers in Russia.
On February 24, he woke up to the news that the Russian army was approaching Kherson. That same morning, he went to the military registration and enlistment office. “I don’t know how people react in such situations, but in my view, you can hardly call yourself a man if you quickly disappear somewhere and then like posts that say ‘I believe in the Ukrainian Armed Forces,’” Volodymyr explains his decision.
Before the full-scale invasion, he worked in the patrol police, and since 2021, he had been serving in the maritime security forces off the coast of Somalia, escorting civilian vessels in high-risk areas.
After his arrest, the occupiers first took Volodymyr for interrogation to a room that served as a torture chamber set up by the Russians: “They had two rooms where they held detainees—Alcatraz and Azkaban. Such dreamers.” They put him in shackles and stretched his body out in the shape of a star; the interrogation was accompanied by physical abuse, threats, and shocks from a stun gun.
In addition, Volodymyr and the other detainees were forced to confess to acts they did not commit. “As for me personally, they wanted me to confess to killing and raping some young girl,” the man says.
According to Volodymyr, the Russians simply enjoyed torturing the detained Ukrainians: “Everything they could extract from us, they extracted during the very first month of detention. They simply enjoy such methods. The Russians were joking around; they were having fun.”
THE KHERSON TORTURE CHAMBER: “THEY USED TONGS OR SOME KIND OF MEDIEVAL FINGER-CRUSHERS”
During the first interrogation immediately after his arrest, Russian soldiers began torturing the man. “They used tongs or some kind of medieval finger-crushers—that’s how I imagined them—clamping them onto my genitals and threatening to cut them off. They threatened to use a baton to commit sexual assault in an unnatural way, using criminal slang,” Volodymyr recounts.
The victim also notes that correctional officials in Russia constantly threatened him with sexual assault: “That they would rape me, that they would force me to perform oral sex, that they would rape me with rubber batons—it seemed they had some kind of fetish.”
Vladimir emphasizes that such threats were widespread. He notes that Russia is a country with such values, where, to demonstrate one’s “coolness,” one must show that one can force a helpless person of the same sex into same-sex relations.
“They openly declared their hatred for Ukrainians. They stated outright that they hate us,” continues the victim of sexual violence.
Volodymyr spent over a year in Russian captivity
A CAMP IN CRIMEA AND A DETENTION CENTER IN RUSSIA: “THEY BEAT ME AND TORTURED ME WITH AN ELECTRIC SHOCK DEVICE, AND SET DOGS ON ME”
After a month of detention in the Kherson torture chamber, the man, along with several others, was transferred to a “model camp” in Sevastopol. There, they removed the cast that had been applied earlier in the Kherson torture chamber, which had not been adjusted during his month of detention.
Two days later, the detainees from Kherson were flown to the Russian Federation and placed in a pretrial detention center in the city of Borisoglibsk, Voronezh Oblast.
Volodymyr recalls that beatings at the Borisoglibsk pretrial detention center were a daily occurrence, sometimes even twice a day. Once a week, the detained men were taken outside for some fresh air. “Any movement outside the cells was accompanied by beatings and torture with a stun gun; you couldn’t walk upright—you always had to be in the ‘dolphin’ position: head down, arms up,” he adds.
He also says that he was bitten by dogs several times—according to him, this was how the dog handlers entertained themselves: “Because of my injuries, I was at the back of the line, and they set the dogs on me.”
The man spent about five months in the Voronezh region. After that, he was transferred to a penal colony in the Vladimir region.
After some time there, Vladimir was moved to another cell, which was directly across from the torture chamber. There were three interrogation rooms right next to each other. “You could hear people screaming as if they were in the next room. And this is a pretrial detention center—can you imagine how thick the walls even are there?” the man adds.
“It’s fun for them (the Russians—ed.) when there are ‘Ukrainian Nazis’ and they can do whatever they want to them: whether it’s forcing them to stand on their heads, making them sing the Russian anthem until they lose consciousness, or make them repeat ‘Victory Day’ until they go crazy,” says Volodymyr.
At the end of the conversation, Volodymyr shares his thoughts on civic responsibility: “For many people, the war is somewhere far away and doesn’t concern them. But the fact is, no one is born for war. It’s just that some people adapt, while others look for excuses. My excuse right now is my physical injuries. I wish I didn’t have them.”
If you’d prefer to watch the video with subtitles in another language, go to YouTube Settings → Subtitles → Auto-translate and select the language you want.
Author: Yana Korniychuk
“They detained me on March 30. I spent a month under occupation. To give you an idea, I watched the group that came to arrest me for a few minutes. Because I wasn’t paying close attention, I didn’t immediately realize they had come for me,” Volodymyr recalls. Along with three other men, he spoke in the Slidstvo.Info documentary “He, Too: Stories of Ukrainian Men Abused by Russians” about the sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers.
This is covered in a “Slidstvo.Info” article: Rape, electric shocks to the genitals, and threats of castration: what four Ukrainian men endured during the Russian occupation.
“ALCATRAZ AND AZKABAN”: “THEY SHACKLED ME AND STRETCHED MY BODY INTO A STAR SHAPE”
Vladimir was held in Russian captivity for over a year: first in a torture chamber in Kherson, then briefly in Crimea, and later in penal colonies and pretrial detention centers in Russia.
On February 24, he woke up to the news that the Russian army was approaching Kherson. That same morning, he went to the military registration and enlistment office. “I don’t know how people react in such situations, but in my view, you can hardly call yourself a man if you quickly disappear somewhere and then like posts that say ‘I believe in the Ukrainian Armed Forces,’” Volodymyr explains his decision.
Before the full-scale invasion, he worked in the patrol police, and since 2021, he had been serving in the maritime security forces off the coast of Somalia, escorting civilian vessels in high-risk areas.
After his arrest, the occupiers first took Volodymyr for interrogation to a room that served as a torture chamber set up by the Russians: “They had two rooms where they held detainees—Alcatraz and Azkaban. Such dreamers.” They put him in shackles and stretched his body out in the shape of a star; the interrogation was accompanied by physical abuse, threats, and shocks from a stun gun.
In addition, Volodymyr and the other detainees were forced to confess to acts they did not commit. “As for me personally, they wanted me to confess to killing and raping some young girl,” the man says.
According to Volodymyr, the Russians simply enjoyed torturing the detained Ukrainians: “Everything they could extract from us, they extracted during the very first month of detention. They simply enjoy such methods. The Russians were joking around; they were having fun.”
THE KHERSON TORTURE CHAMBER: “THEY USED TONGS OR SOME KIND OF MEDIEVAL FINGER-CRUSHERS”
During the first interrogation immediately after his arrest, Russian soldiers began torturing the man. “They used tongs or some kind of medieval finger-crushers—that’s how I imagined them—clamping them onto my genitals and threatening to cut them off. They threatened to use a baton to commit sexual assault in an unnatural way, using criminal slang,” Volodymyr recounts.
The victim also notes that correctional officials in Russia constantly threatened him with sexual assault: “That they would rape me, that they would force me to perform oral sex, that they would rape me with rubber batons—it seemed they had some kind of fetish.”
Vladimir emphasizes that such threats were widespread. He notes that Russia is a country with such values, where, to demonstrate one’s “coolness,” one must show that one can force a helpless person of the same sex into same-sex relations.
“They openly declared their hatred for Ukrainians. They stated outright that they hate us,” continues the victim of sexual violence.
Volodymyr spent over a year in Russian captivity
A CAMP IN CRIMEA AND A DETENTION CENTER IN RUSSIA: “THEY BEAT ME AND TORTURED ME WITH AN ELECTRIC SHOCK DEVICE, AND SET DOGS ON ME”
After a month of detention in the Kherson torture chamber, the man, along with several others, was transferred to a “model camp” in Sevastopol. There, they removed the cast that had been applied earlier in the Kherson torture chamber, which had not been adjusted during his month of detention.
Two days later, the detainees from Kherson were flown to the Russian Federation and placed in a pretrial detention center in the city of Borisoglibsk, Voronezh Oblast.
Volodymyr recalls that beatings at the Borisoglibsk pretrial detention center were a daily occurrence, sometimes even twice a day. Once a week, the detained men were taken outside for some fresh air. “Any movement outside the cells was accompanied by beatings and torture with a stun gun; you couldn’t walk upright—you always had to be in the ‘dolphin’ position: head down, arms up,” he adds.
He also says that he was bitten by dogs several times—according to him, this was how the dog handlers entertained themselves: “Because of my injuries, I was at the back of the line, and they set the dogs on me.”
The man spent about five months in the Voronezh region. After that, he was transferred to a penal colony in the Vladimir region.
After some time there, Vladimir was moved to another cell, which was directly across from the torture chamber. There were three interrogation rooms right next to each other. “You could hear people screaming as if they were in the next room. And this is a pretrial detention center—can you imagine how thick the walls even are there?” the man adds.
“It’s fun for them (the Russians—ed.) when there are ‘Ukrainian Nazis’ and they can do whatever they want to them: whether it’s forcing them to stand on their heads, making them sing the Russian anthem until they lose consciousness, or make them repeat ‘Victory Day’ until they go crazy,” says Volodymyr.
At the end of the conversation, Volodymyr shares his thoughts on civic responsibility: “For many people, the war is somewhere far away and doesn’t concern them. But the fact is, no one is born for war. It’s just that some people adapt, while others look for excuses. My excuse right now is my physical injuries. I wish I didn’t have them.”
If you’d prefer to watch the video with subtitles in another language, go to YouTube Settings → Subtitles → Auto-translate and select the language you want.
This is an automatic translation generated by DeepL.