"Tied to a pull-up bar, head wrapped in duct tape." Relatives of servicemen in "DPR" reported torture

Павялічыць

Relatives of 30-year-old Ilya V. from Krasnodar Krai told "Ostorozhno, novosti" that he served as a sapper under contract in military unit 52892 in Horlivka (DPR).

At the end of 2025, Ilya suffered a concussion when he and his colleagues hit a mine. According to relatives, the command did not respond to requests for help, and Ilya himself bandaged the soldiers for three days. After this, he decided to leave the unit and go to Donetsk to recover.

At night, Ilya's father received a call from a man who introduced himself as Mikhail, the chairman of the engineering and sapper company. He asked to talk and convince Ilya to return to the unit so that he wouldn't be declared absent without leave. He also sent the soldier's father a report on his son's commendation and assured him that he would give him leave in a few weeks: "He told his father, 'let him rest for a couple of days, and we will come for him.' He added that he had drawn certain conclusions and realized his mistakes in dealing with the soldiers."

A day later, Ilya was taken back to the unit. The same day, the chairman deleted all correspondence in the messenger and blocked the man's parents. Ilya disappeared from contact, and later called his relatives from an unknown number and said that his phone was taken and broken that day, and his documents were torn, allegedly because "Ilya wouldn't need them anymore."

"He was taken to some basement where other servicemen lay in sleeping bags. They were ordered not to talk to each other. There, Ilya's DNA was taken, and later in the middle of the night, he was led to a separate room, handcuffed and tied to a pull-up bar. His head was wrapped in duct tape, a hat was stuffed into his mouth, and his muscles were beaten with batons for an hour."

Павялічыць

In the basement, according to relatives, Ilya was shown another military contract (the previous contract had expired a few weeks earlier), which someone had signed instead of him. The next morning, Ilya, along with other soldiers, as relatives claim, was sent from the basement to an assault. To record the beatings and report the crimes against him and other soldiers, Ilya decided to abandon the mission and go to Donetsk. His relatives came to him there: "We were going to take him home to his place of residence and registration and then contact all law enforcement agencies."

At one of the checkpoints, Ilya was detained by FSB officers. The family described the situation, and the officers assured them that they had accepted the statement and would send the detainee to the Investigative Committee and the military commandant's office for further proceedings. Ilya's relatives were promised that he would not be sent back to the unit. Later, the relatives went home to Krasnodar Krai. Ilya called them from the military commandant's office in the city of Amvrosiivka (DPR), and then disappeared.

By phone, the commandant's office replied that on December 26, he was taken back to the unit at night. A few days later, the unit's political officer called and reported that Ilya had gone on a combat mission and had been considered missing since the 29th.

In addition to Ilya's relatives, several other servicemen's relatives reported torture in this unit. Families of more than 100 soldiers declared missing are asking for help in finding their loved ones.

• 0
• 0
• 9
• 2
• 0
• 0
• 2
• 1