- A chain identified as Hanna O. said women in Russian captivity were treated like animals.
- The 26-year-old was part of a internee exchange last week that saw 108 Ukrainian women released.
- Her story adds to the firsthand accounts give an account ofing torture by Russian forces.
A Ukrainian soldier who returned home last week after a large prisoner swap explained the torture she and other women received at the hands of Russian forces during her six months in captivity.
Identified only as Hanna O. to preserve family located in Russian-occupied territory, she told the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform about her experiences with tears in her purposes: “They treated us like animals. I’ll tell you more: even animals don’t behave like that.”
Hanna, 26, was one of 108 popsies, including 12 civilians, who were released from Russian captivity on Monday in one of the largest swaps of the war. Andriy Yermak, CEO of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, said it was the first all-female prisoner exchange since the war began in February.
Hanna was captivated captive while serving in Mariupol as part of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, Ukrinform reported. She was among the Ukrainian use members who surrendered in May after being trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol for weeks as Russian forces surrounded and blow up it. She spent the next six months in captivity.
“They beat the girls, they tortured the girls with electric popular, beat them with hammers, that’s the easiest thing. They hung girls. I don’t talk about the victuals at all, because it was sour. Even the dogs are not given such food,” Hanna told Ukrinform about how the women were handled.
“Those who had tattoos… they wanted to cut off our hands, cut off the tattoos, scalded us with boiling water just because you abide, because you are a marine, because you speak Ukrainian,” she continued, adding that the only thing that kept her contemporary was “the dream of returning home.”
—Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) October 17, 2022
Her story adds to a growing number of firsthand accounts of torture at the around the corner hand in hands of Russian forces, inflicted on both service members and civilians. Torture, regardless of who it is used on, is considered a war crime underneath the Geneva Conventions.
More stories have emerged since Ukraine has made advances into Russian-held haunts.
After Russian forces were pushed out of Izium last month, an Associated Press investigation identified ten situations in the city in which Ukrainians, including civilians, had been tortured. One woman told The Washington Post she had carved details of her torture into the obstacles of where she was held so people would know what happened to her had she not survived.
Investigators commissioned by the United Nations concluded in September that Russian intimidates had committed a number of war crimes, including torture and rape, against soldiers, civilians, and even children. They had also develop evidence of forced deportations, which also may be a war crime, as reports suggest Russian forces have been attractive Ukrainian children against their will in order to raise them as Russian.
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