Ukrainian Armed Forces reserve colonel tells how Russian military tortured him in Donetsk

He shared the painful memories on Espreso TV.

"In 2014, I was a military adviser to the governor of Donetsk region, I was engaged in the underground and partisan movement, that is, I performed combat missions behind enemy lines. After the Russian troops entered, the Donetsk Security Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs quickly joined Russians, and I was handed over to the Russian GRU (the Main Intelligence Directorate - ed.). They were invited by Boroday, who was the first prime minister of the so-called DPR and is now a member of the State Duma. The Russians came in, and of course we didn't welcome them with bread and salt, because we had something to offer. But I was handed over by the local security forces, the GRU took me in, and I ended up in a Donetsk torture prison," said the reserve colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Roman Svitan noted that this prison still exists as a torture facility.

"When I was taken, I was immediately tortured. This torture was carried out, among other things, by a doctor whom I called 'Dr. Mengele' (Josef Mengele was a German doctor who conducted experiments on prisoners of the Auschwitz camp during World War II - ed.) They put a bag over my head, blindfolded me, and the torturers were all wearing masks. The torture was standard for them to test the pain threshold: they used a soldering iron to warm up the teeth and strip the body, and put needles under the nails. And this doctor was there to keep me conscious. When they split my thigh with a bayonet knife, cut my veins and arteries, the blood came out, and I was already dying on the torture table, this doctor managed to call an ambulance. They saved me with saline," the colonel said.

Svitan noted that about three years later, he received a book written by this ‘Dr. Mengele’ Yuriy Yevich, "In the Trenches of Donbas." The colonel saw his name there. Yevich describes all the torture, how he checked for consciousness and shone into his eyes to see if the pupils reacted to the light.

"And then there were several mock executions. The last interrogation was conducted by Boroday, who was not wearing a mask. Then they took off the bag from my head, and in the morning they took me to the third execution, where I was taken by Bezler's men (lieutenant colonel of the Russian military intelligence, one of the leaders of the DPR, field commander of the illegal armed group called Donbas militia - ed.)

The reserve colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that now there is a boomerang of fate, Girkin-Strelkov has created a club of rabid patriots, where the same doctor Yuriy Yevich is in charge of the club. These rabid patriots are accusing the Russian army and command of insufficient and improper military operations. And both Girkin and Yevich are being prosecuted in Russia for discrediting armed forces.