People freed from ‘death camps’ of Donbas militants tell about tortures

111 citizens of Ukraine are still held captive by the illegal armed groups in Donbas.

This is reported by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

“111 Ukrainians are still held captive. Nine of them are in the territory of the Russian Federation. 499 people have gone missing,” the SBU press service reports.

SBU Chief Vasyl Hrytsak, in turn, told at the briefing that 3,082 people had been released from captivity since the onset of the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine.

Among them there have been 1,484 civilians and 1,598 servicemen, fighters of volunteer battalions and law enforcement officials.

In addition, the SBU press service released a video showing former captives of so-called “death camps” giving testimony. Former prisoners tell about abuse and torture. The most common were beating on kidneys, forced living in a cold basement, simulated shooting and torture by hunger.

The prisoners also complain about ill-timed provision of health care, even in very serious cases.

“We are collecting evidence of people about those horrible tortures. Not only servicemen, but civilians as well, even priests are subjected to torture,” Hrytsak said.

He said that the Ukrainian secret service was collecting the evidence of torture. Russian military personnel are also among those who use torture. A total of 124 testimonies have been already collected.

“When held captive, our compatriots were completely deprived of the right to any legal protection, the representatives of the international human rights organizations were not allowed to visit them, the inhuman conditions of their detention were not covered in the media,” Hrytsak said.