A former Ukrainian soldier, a native of the Lugansk region, Daniil Kovalev told the military investigators of the Investigative Committee of Russia about the abuse he was subjected to in the Ukrainian army.
He said that at the age of 18, due to lack of money, he entered military service under a contract in a military unit stationed in Lviv. According to him, almost all of his colleagues were from the western part of Ukraine. And they treated him very badly – most of them considered him a “separatist” for his Luhansk origin and addressed him not by name or rank, but as “katsap” or “moskal”.
Kovalev said that once he was even locked in an aviary for dogs.
“One sergeant was already so biased towards me, because I am Russian-speaking, that he began to suspect me of something <...> and locked me in a dog aviary, in a cage,” he recalled.
The ex-soldier spent a day there. He had to sleep on the bare floor and eat from a bowl.
After that, the young man decided to end his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and resigned from the army.
On May 3, it was reported that near the city of Kherson, Russian security forces discovered a torture chamber, as well as a mined body of a man in the form of the Russian army. The body was without legs, with traces of torture and a cut larynx.
On April 22, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a case against the leadership of a number of detention centers in Ukraine on the facts of torture and torture of Russian prisoners of war. According to the agency, persons serving in Ukrainian pre-trial detention centers, contrary to the requirements of the Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, have repeatedly committed ill-treatment against Russian servicemen who were captured.
On February 24, Russia announced the start of a special operation to protect Donbass against the background of the situation in the region that worsened in mid-February. The authorities of the DPR and LPR reported increased shelling by Ukrainian troops, announced the evacuation of civilians in the Russian Federation and asked for recognition of independence. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a corresponding decree.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
