Russian forces setting up numerous torture chambers in occupied Ukrainian territories – defense ministry

The Russian forces continue refurbishing civil infrastructure facilities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to intensify repression against locals and hide their criminal activities, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app.

According to the minister, during August in Pervomaivka, the southern Kherson region, using the buildings of the food base, the Russian invaders are urgently setting up the premises of a new prison. The surrounding area is already guarded by the Russian military police permanently.

In Tokmak, the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, the occupiers, threatening with firearms, took non-residential premises from local entrepreneurs, which they use to hold detainees, Maliar said.

In a student dormitory in Vasylivka, the Zaporizhzhia region, the Russians have set up a room where residents are interrogated using torture, the Deputy Minister of Defense stressed.

Torture rooms in occupied Mariupol

According to the councilor of the Mariupol mayor, Petro Andriushchenko, more than 10,000 civilians have been arrested in temporarily Russian-occupied Mariupol, and their whereabouts and fate are unknown.

"Every week in Mariupol, dozens of people are detained as part of checks and searches for saboteurs… In total, more than 10,000 Mariupol civilians have been arrested by the occupiers, and their places of detention or further fate are unknown," Andriushchenko reported.

He said the Russian invaders were detaining ordinary people for correspondence with evacuated Mariupol residents and reading Ukrainian news publications. They are detained merely on suspicion and denunciations.

The mayor's adviser released a video of the torture chamber in Mariupol, where most detainees go. He wrote under the video:

"The absolute majority end up here. The main torture chamber of Mariupol is the former Central District Police Department. Here, people confess,' sign some papers, and then, at best, they are under surveillance. At worst, they disappear forever."

The Russians are turning the city and surrounding villages into a military logistics hub.

During the occupation of Kherson, the Russians tortured women in isolation cells by beating, electrocution, water, threats, and humiliation.