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Freed Ukrainian POWs in Canada describe torture: forced false testimonies with electric shocks, starvation

Today is the second day of the conference on the release of prisoners and the return of deportees in Montreal.

Freed Ukrainian POWs in Canada describe torture: forced false testimonies with electric shocks, starvation
Ukrainians released from captivity tell about torture by Russians at conference in Canada
Photo: President's website

In Montreal, as part of the Ministerial Conference on the Human Dimension of the Peace Formula, Ukrainians released from captivity spoke about the torture used against them by Russians. This is stated on the President's website.

Prisoner of war Maksym Kolesnikov, who spent ten months in captivity, said that they were beaten and not allowed to eat while in captivity. The prisoners were also forbidden to communicate with each other and forced to stand for hours.

Kolesnikov called to fight for the release of his fellow prisoner, whose life is in danger.

The wife of the captured Crimean journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko, Kateryna, said that he was tortured with electricity. The Russians detained Yesypenko before the full-scale invasion, in March 2021.

‘This winter marks the fourth year of his illegal detention. After his detention, he was tortured with electric shocks to obtain false testimony,’ she said.

Ukrainian paramedic Yuliya Payevska (call sign Tayra), who spent three months in captivity, was also subjected to electric shocks as a method of extracting false testimony.

‘It's when your muscles are too tense. When your back is bent like a bow. It's when your joints seem to bend in the opposite direction, when the ligaments are about to tear. When your breath catches, your heart beats so fast that it's about to stop. It's when you scream, scream, scream, and it goes on for hours,’ she said.

Tayra also spoke about other abuses the enemy uses against Ukrainians, including depriving prisoners of vital medicines and creating horrific conditions of detention.

‘The Red Cross has not reached anyone I've talked to during these almost three years of war. Neither has it reached me. Perhaps there are people who could organise a normal alternative to the International Red Cross, which would finally get to our prisoners and check the conditions of detention of both civilians and military,’ she concluded.

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