After the Russians withdrew from Issyum, stories of arrests and torture proliferated

In eastern Ukraine, Koupiansk, Izioum, Balakliïa, towns recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces, stories of arbitrary detention and torture by the occupiers emerge. At Izioum Hospital, Mykhaïlo Tchindeï, 67, recently started walking again. His arm, plastered and in a sling, is a painful reminder of the Russian presence in the city.

“On the night of August 27, the school near my house was bombed,” he says. “There were Russian soldiers there and there were a lot of dead and wounded,” he said. After the bombing, the Russians arrested Mykhailo Dichinde, accusing him of “giving the coordinates of the school to Ukrainian forces.” They wanted to know where the Ukrainian troops were and whether he had communicated with them. “They put a bag over my head and took me away (…) When I looked, I recognized the place and it was Isium police station,” he said. He was confined for 12 days in a five by five meter wet room with seven other people.

“The second day, they broke my arm. One grabbed my hand and another hit my hand with a metal rod. They beat me almost everyday for two hours. I lost consciousness several times,” he says. “They hit my heels, back, legs and kidneys,” he adds. According to him, at least one man died in this basement.