Ukrainian prisoners face brutal torture and terror in Russian captivity

The Russians connected electrodes to my ears, fingertips, and back, and passed electricity through them, says one of the Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia. Thousands have been arrested since the beginning of the war. Among them was Sergei Tsygipa, who decided to engage in hybrid warfare at the outbreak of the conflict.

The war in Ukraine has been ongoing for two and a half years. During this time, thousands of Ukrainians have fallen into Russian captivity. Ukrainian civilians and military personnel are being held in prisons on Russian territory. What usually unites them is the extreme brutality and violence they face in penal colonies.

One of the Ukrainians held there is former journalist and actor Sergei Tsygipa, who engaged in hybrid warfare against the Russians at the outbreak of the conflict. In his media, he reported the progress of Putin's troops entering Nova Kakhovka, which was already occupied in the early days of the aggression.

Of course, he did not expect the war to break out and to end up in captivity. But most of all, he didn’t expect the Ukrainian side not to fight for him. He writes to me: 'Lena, go to the president, go to the Security Service of Ukraine, write to those and others...' God, I’ve done all this, and more than once, says Yelena, Tsygipa's wife, as quoted by Onet.

Along with his wife, Alexander Tarasov, a journalist from Kherson, also fell into Russian captivity. He described the horrific torture he endured while in captivity and the fate that most likely also befell Sergei Tsygipa. What stood out the most was the nighttime screams of the wounded and the use of electricity by the Russians.

The Russians connected electrodes to my ears, fingertips, and back, and passed electricity through them. It went on for hours, says Tarasov. Then they told me that I had a choice: either I would say on video the text they had prepared, or they would torture not only me but also the closest members of my family — my two sons and my mother.