Ukrainian Man Speaks of Torture at Hands of Russian Collaborators

A Ukrainian civilian has told the BBC that during Russia’s occupation of his village he was assaulted, bound up, and shocked with an electric current. Andrii Matiazh, 46, claimed that local Ukrainian policemen had switched sides and had helped Russian troops torture innocent people.

“Someone tortured me,” he said, speaking from his home in Volokhivka, which is around four miles from Ukraine’s border with Russia.

“They used to be in the police force before the invasion and then they turned to the Russian side.”

More than 10 torture chambers have been discovered in recently liberated areas of the north-eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces are alleged to have used torture.

The Ukrainian military has retaken towns, villages, and a number of crossing points in the last two weeks, all the way to the Russian border.

The risk of Russian shelling at one of the border crossings was deemed to be so high on Sunday that reporters were advised not to go there. Nevertheless, they have not yet succeeded in establishing peace.

There have been more than 1,400 prosecutions of citizens for treason and working with the Russian military.

Beginning in May, Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, stated that there were over 700 treason cases pending against Ukrainian citizens as well as an additional 700 cases of collaboration.

Prosecutors claimed that 50 cases, including those against seven police officers, five mayors, and a judge, had been opened in the besieged Kharkiv region alone. They are all held accountable for allegedly opening the door for Moscow to occupy villages and execute dozens of individuals.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky also increased the reorganisation of his security services by suspending 28 additional officials, one day after he fired two senior officials over claims that their organisations harboured “collaborators and traitors.”