Ukrainian Police Tortured Kherson Residents for 'Ties with Russia' – Source
15:00 GMT 30.05.2023 (Updated: 15:06 GMT 30.05.2023)
© AP Photo / Felipe Dana / Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) servicemen enter a building during an operation to arrest suspected Russian collaborators in Kharkiv, Ukraine
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The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has reportedly set up torture chambers in two police stations in Kherson - Dnieper and Komsomolsk - to deal with people who, according to the SBU, collaborated with the Russian authorities, a representative of law enforcement agencies, citing a source in the Ukrainian National Police, told Sputnik.
"The Dnieper Police Department is mainly staffed by Ukrainians. The unit is headed by Grigory Nikolaevich Nevkryty, the head of the Strategic Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kherson, with Alexander Priveda as his deputy. Senior officers include Alexander Maloshenko, Maxim Shevchenko, police officers Sergei Gordey, Arthur Frolov, Alexander Shvets and Artem Kononov," the agency's source said.
According to the source, Vladimir Malina, an assistant to a merchant who left for another region of Russia while he stayed behind, died in the police station of the Dnieprovsky district after being detained by Ukrainian security forces on April 5, 2023.
"He was held in the torture chamber of the Dnieprovsky police station, brutally beaten, and died the next day in his cell. In order to conceal his death, two people detained with him - Roman Gavriluk and Igor Gurov, employees of the Russian Humanitarian Center - were tortured for three days and forced to write statements claiming that Vladimir Malina had been released with them," the source added.
Several people were tortured to death in these chambers, and all of them have been officially declared missing, the source clarified.
"As for the second police station, Komsomolsk, where a torture chamber is located, little is known about its activities because foreigners work there and locals are not allowed to enter. English, Polish and Georgian can be heard there," the source pointed out.
According to a Russian security official, foreigners working in the Komsomolsk Police Department "use Ukrainian nationalist militant groups as a brutal physical force to eliminate people who are not favored by the Kiev authorities."
"It is known that Bogdan Gnatiuk, who previously worked in the Suvorovsky Police Department and later returned to Kherson with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is currently working in this department. There is also Alexey Lyubinsky, a Ukrainian nationalist who specializes in confiscating other people's property," he said.
According to the source, at least three people were killed. Anna Demenskaya, a nurse at a city clinic, died of torture. Alexander Sendetsky, who worked as an investigator during the Russian military presence in Kherson, disappeared after his arrest. In addition, Yevgeny Usachev, who worked under the Russian authorities in the 90th colony of Kherson, disappeared after being held in the basement of the Dnieprovsky police station, with no further information about him available.
"In addition, more than 15 citizens were forced to testify against themselves and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment as a result of physical coercion," the agency's source added.
Law enforcement agencies and special services in Ukraine conduct investigative actions in violation of Ukrainian procedural legislation, resorting to physical coercion against detainees, he pointed out. Foreign mercenaries and militants of nationalist formations are actively involved in exerting pressure and carrying out violent actions against the detainees, the source concluded.
9 May 2023, 11:00 GMT
