“Three torture chambers are run in the territory around Kherson. The primary targets of torture are local authorities, business people, former law enforcement, and military personnel,” said the advisor at the Presidential Office, Oleksiy Arestovych, in an interview with an Israeli radio station on April 10.
"There are ongoing rallies. In the Kherson region, they are trying to pressure the local authorities: they killed several mayors, kidnapped business people and former law enforcement, and created torture chambers. We know about three torture facilities where Russia interrogates, tortures, and kills people. But we do not see the same widespread torture of civilians yet," stated the Presidential advisor.
He also said that the region's residents kept resisting the occupation, despite pressure and intimidation.
"Ukrainian resistance is alive in the Kherson region. They can't commit as many crimes there as there are few cameras, and they don't get attention. But some groups of people are targeted by this torture: those who participated in the Anti-Terrorist Operation (Ukraine's military operation against pro-russian forces in Donbas in 2014-2018 - translator's note), ex-military of the Armed Forced of Ukraine who hadn't have time to leave, and ex-staff of the Security Service of Ukraine."
On April 9, it became known that the Russian occupiers kidnapped the former head of the Kherson Regional State Administration, Andriy Putilov.