Russian forces tortured 20 Ukrainians, killing four in Biliayivka in Kherson region

During Russia's offensive in the Kherson region, the village of Biliayivka was occupied. From April 5 to the end of September 2022, Russian forces held 20 Ukrainians hostage in torture chambers.

The ZMINA rights organization reported two dead during the imprisonment, while the other two died after their release.

According to other detainees, two men died while tortured. Two more men died after their release; one committed suicide and the other died of natural causes. As the organization's coordinator Yelyzaveta Sokurenko emphasized, all deaths are the result of torture and ill-treatment.

The victims told us that they witnessed the deaths of two men during their detention. These men are farmer Oleh Kovalyk from the village of Myrolyubivka and Dmytro Zhuravlev, who lived in Biliayivka, Sokurenko said.

Kovalyk was kidnapped to a torture chamber on the night of April 10, before which the detainees heard the man screaming for several hours. Apparently, he was beaten and tortured. When he was thrown into the cell, Russian troops beat him again and tied his hands. The man asked to be untied, while the Russian military forbade other detainees to do so.

Oleh Kovalyk said he felt a burn under his nose, which could have been a sign of either electricity used to his nose or the fact that the Russians blew substances from a fire extinguisher into his nose. Kovalyk's pants were also cut in the groin area, which may indicate that he was tortured with electricity to the genitals, the coordinator said.

She added that Kovalyk had assisted the Ukrainian military, which the Russians knew. This affected the severity of his torture.

In 30-40 minutes after Oleh Kovalyk was placed in the cell, he died and was left in the room with the detainees for a day, the coordinator said.

Dmytro Zhuravlev was another illegal prisoner, who was placed in the torture chamber on April 7. According to the testimony, the man said that he was injected with unknown substances. The man hardly slept, he was constantly moving, ripping off his clothes.

Other detainees tried to put him on the bunk to rest, but he would fall off and start moving again.

The other detainees noted that Zhuravlev was constantly begging for water. Once the man started knocking on the door, asking for water supplies. Russian forces opened the door and poured water on his head while hitting him.

Witnesses also said that there was a time when Zhuravlev was moved to an unknown place for several days. After his return, he claimed to have been injected with substances.

Between now and May 3, Dmytro Zhuravlev died and, as described by other victims, when he was carried out, he lost so much weight that one could see his spinal cord through his stomach, Sokurenko said.

The coordinator emphasized that the Russian military took the bodies of both Kovalyk and Zhuravlev to an unknown destination, and both men are considered missing. Their relatives are looking for the bodies or any information about their possible whereabouts.