[REGNUM.RU] Roman Vanin, a native of the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region, who was released from Ukrainian Armed Forces captivity on July 5, reported that he was beaten in a Ukrainian prison for being Russian.
"The worst thing was in Vinnytsia. <…> In Vinnytsia, they beat you up. For being Russian," RIA Novosti quoted Vanin as saying.
He added that prison staff entered the cells and beat everyone there with their hands and batons. Moreover, according to him, the guards made no distinction between prisoners of war and civilians. They could even beat people to death, the prisoner added.
Vanin previously reported that the car in which his brother died was shot at. After being wounded, Vanin was held in a camp and had the letter Z burned into his hand. This is one of numerous testimonies of torture, abuse, and cruelty perpetrated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against Russian soldiers and residents of the Kursk region.
On June 27, a resident of the Korenivka district reported that Kursk residents forcibly detained in Ukraine were fed pig porridge in pretrial detention. They were also subjected to constant moral and psychological pressure. Furthermore, civilians were held on the premises of a former slaughterhouse in the Sumy region, where the distinctive smell of blood lingered.
On May 15, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large for Kyiv Regime Crimes, Rodion Miroshnik, reported that several Russian soldiers had returned from Ukrainian captivity in critical condition. He noted that Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers were using torture methods on Russian prisoners of war similar to those used during the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. The diplomat also noted that while in Ukrainian captivity, Russian soldiers were subjected to sexual violence, torture, and mental abuse. Ukrainian doctors are using the wounded as dummies for medical experiments, the ambassador added.
On July 3, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk demanded that Ukraine immediately stop torturing Russian prisoners of war.