TL:DR – Inside Putin’s Gulags: New Methods Targeting Deserters Uncovered in Russia News
- Footage reveals Russian soldiers torturing deserters amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
- Human rights groups report widespread torture of captured Ukrainians in over 300 detention facilities.
- Victims describe horrific treatment including waterboarding and electric shocks.
- UN warns of systematic abuse in Russian gulags.
- Around 15,000 Ukrainian civilians are currently detained, with significant military casualties reported on both sides.
- The brutal realities highlight the dire need for accountability in Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Inside Putin’s torture gulags with new methods targeting deserters revealed
Vladimir Putin’s army was filmed torturing their own soldiers to curb desertion from the deadly war, while captured Ukrainians are shipped to gulags known for inhumane treatment.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine dragging on for nearly four years now, Putin’s war machine needs to be constantly fed with new soldiers, many of them young conscripts.
As many sent to the frontline face almost certain death, some attempt to escape to the other side.
Not making it through means a fate almost worse than death in the hands of their own troops.
The soldier, thought to have been captured after trying to flee, is pictured sobbing and tied up inside a tyre (Picture: east2west news)
Chilling footage filmed inside the Russian army has emerged showing horrific details of what happens to those considered traitors, and this is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.
In the video, a half-naked man, thought to be a Russian soldier, is trapped inside a car tyre in the snow with his hands tied.
The soldier cries as his commander accuses him of seeking to flee and rants: ‘What, you f*****g b*****, do you want to f*** off? Do you want to f*** off…..?
The sobbing fighter pleads: ‘Sorry, Commander, I won’t, I’m sorry…..’
Inside Russian Torture Gulags for Ukrainians
Ukrainian soldiers and civilians captured by Putin’s army will be taken to one of the over 300 detention facilities, which have mushroomed in Russia since the war started.
Torture of detainees is said to be a norm rather than an exception, according to human rights groups.
Locals in Snihurivka, Ukraine, said the basement of a restaurant was used for torture during a Russian occupation (Picture: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Those who have managed to leave alive have recalled extensive torture methods inflicted on them regularly, including waterboarding, electric shocks, and being used as ‘human furniture’.
Viktok Biletskyi, a soldier in the Ukrainian 406th Separate Artillery Brigade, described what happened to his cellmate Danylo: ‘They put a gas mask on Danylo and electrocuted him to make him suffocate faster, but as soon as he started to lose consciousness, they took off the gas mask. They did not let him die: they wanted him to suffer.’
In an infamous detention facility, SIZO-2 in Taganrog, Ukrainians are reportedly subjected to a method known as ‘call to Putin’ or ‘call to Lenin.’
Plastic ties for torture and a broken chair were found in the basement of an office building in occupied Kherson, where 30 people were held for two months, according to Ukrainian prosecutors (Picture: REUTERS)
It involves a Soviet-era phone, which is attached to the prisoner’s earlobes, nose, or genitals with wires to administer electric shocks.
Sites thought to have been used as ad hoc torture facilities have also been uncovered in Ukrainian towns and cities occupied by the Russian army.
In Snihurivka, Ukraine, locals reported that the basement of a restaurant was used to torture captives.
In Kherson, prosecutors said 30 people were held in the basement of an office building for two months, where plastic ties for torture were later found.
Putin and his cronies appear to be carrying on business as usual while thousands of people are killed and injured in the protracted invasion of Ukraine (Picture: EPA)
The Russian war of aggression continues to inflict death and destruction across Ukraine, with regular air strikes leaving people without heat, power, and water in the middle of the winter.
The UN has warned of ‘widespread and systematic’ torture inflicted on Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia.
Around 15,000 Ukrainian civilians are estimated to be detained in Russia since the start of the war, with nearly 2,000 kept at detention centres.
Russia has seen more casualties than in any other conflict before for its army, with almost 1.2 million soldiers wounded, killed, and missing since February 2022, according to estimates by US-based think tank CSIS.
Between 500,000 and 600,000 Ukrainian soldiers are thought to have been killed, wounded, and missing.