corpses 63 civilians which they brought traces of torture were found near Khersonmade it famous Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly denied wrongdoing atrocities after the military invasion on 24 February.

BBCnotes in his report that he spoke with two people who claim to have been held in “torture chambers” for more than a month.

At the police station in Kherson, each camera tells its own story, the report says. Someone has clothes scattered everywhere, someone has a burnt bed, someone has garbage lying around. One has a Russian flag in the center of the floor. In cell number six her story was written Angela. She spent 31 days there with four other women after being captured by Russian soldiers in June.

Before the invasion of Ukraine in February 49 year old woman she was a TV presenter on the Telethon channel. In early March, Russian armored personnel carriers entered her hometown of Kherson. Ukrainian protests were crushed and all freedom was lost. In June, gunmen broke into Angela’s home, separated her from her partner, put a bag over her head and loaded her onto a bus. From there he was transferred to cell number six.

“Men were beaten on the third floor,” he recalls. “When a person is electrocuted, you hear it. This is a strange sound. The men were screaming in pain.”

After the Russians occupied Kherson, they arrested people who were believed to be connected to the Ukrainian military or because they were caught on the streets protesting the occupation.

Ukrainian researchers claim to have found 11 illegal prisons and four torture chambers in Kherson in the investigative actions carried out after her release. More than 700 people declared missing. There are concerns that either dead or have been illegally transferred Occupied territories of Russiaor there Russia.

Bodies with signs of torture

Ukraine reported that it had found dozens of bodies with signs of torture next to the city. Minister of Internal Affairs Denis Monastyrsky he said investigations into crimes there are just beginning as “many more dungeons and burials are expected to be unearthed.”

Angela describes with relative calmness how she was tortured for over a month. He often saw plastic-wrapped bodies being carried out after “interrogations had gone too long.”

Then she takes a breath and describes what is still weighing on her. “There were cases,” he says, “when the gates were opened, they had a certain sound. This meant that more people came for interrogations.” He stresses that he couldn’t sleep because the lights were always on. Freed, he found himself unable to sleep in the dark. What she didn’t know was that her partner was also being held at the police station.

OUR 69-year-old Alexander Maksimekno, shared a room with 15 other men, whom he claims were mercilessly beaten and tortured. Some have suffered electric shock as part of the torture. “It’s terrible,” he recalls. “The guy who was taken to the cell after interrogation returned with a black tongue. It was so swollen that he couldn’t put it back in his mouth.”

He says he shared painkillers with his cellmates. The temperature often reached them 40 degrees Celsius and were forced to learn the anthem of Russia.

“The man was so bruised, he was almost completely blue from head to toe. It took him eight days to get up,” he adds.

Ukrainian investigators note that detainees were often forced to confess to being Ukrainian collaborators in order to be released. In Alexander’s case, he was supposed to appear on Russian state television.

Moscow is again accused of committing war crimes, but it continues to deny attacks on civilians despite overwhelming evidence against it.

Kherson is a city that the Russians were especially eager to portray as their own. They hoped that targeting people like Alexander and Angela would help them with that.

BBC