Ukrainians held prisoner by Russian and pro-Moscow forces have accused their captors of torture in a series of interviews.Paramedic Yuliia Paievska, widely known by her nickname Taira, was captured in mid-March while assisting civilians wounded in an airstrike on a theater in the port city of Mariupol.
The city fell to Russian forces in May.Paievska had previously gained international recognition after filming bodycam footage of the siege of Mariupol and smuggling it out to journalists.
She was released from captivity as part of a small prisoner exchange on June 17.I had no food and practically didnt drink for five days, Paievska told CNN in an interview published Wednesday, almost three weeks after her release.She said that she underwent extreme beatings that did not stop for even a minute in a pre-trial detention center in eastern Ukraines occupied Donetsk region.Youre constantly told that you are a fascist, a Nazi, said Paievska.The paramedic told CNN that her captors put her in solitary confinement with only a metal bunk bed after she refused to confess to various crimes on camera.Previously, Paievska said she was beyond exhausted after her captivity.My weight is now about 50 kilograms, she wrote in a June 20 Facebook post.In a separate video interview published Wednesday, a Ukrainian soldier nicknamed Torkrecounted mistreatment while in captivity in the Donetsk region.Tork served with the Azov regiment, a former paramilitary unit with previous links to far-right groups, that has since integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.The unit was involved in the defense of Mariupols last holdout, the Azovstal steel plant, which surrendered and ceded control of the city to Russian and pro-Moscow forces in May.Tork, who was part of a June 29 prisoner exchange, said in the interview with Azovs YouTube channel that he was heavily wounded during the siege of Mariupol in April.Torks captors inserted needles into the prisoners wounds if they didnt like what you said, he said from a hospital in Ukrainian-controlled territory.They literally latched on to two or three guys saying they want information.Tork said that interrogators also targeted senior Azov regiment commanders Denys Redis Prokopenko and his deputy Sviatoslav Kalyna Palamar.Prokopenko and Palamar are believed to be held in Moscows notorious Lefortovo pre-trial detention center.The UNs human rights officesaid this week it has verified 28 cases of torture, gang rape and threats of sexual violence against prisoners of war in Ukraine, mostly in Russian-controlled territories.Appalling reports of torture and ill-treatment by both parties continue, including prisoners of war, with little progress holding those responsible to account, UN human rights chief Michele Bachelet said.