Extract from ABC News
For the first time, Anatoliy Tutov is returning to the cells where he says Russian soldiers detained and tortured him for nearly four weeks.
The 59-year-old wants the world to know the depravity of what happened in Balakliia, near Kharkiv, when Russian forces occupied the Ukrainian city for six months in 2022.
"It's hard for me to remember all this," he tells 7.30 as he stands in the corridor of the police station that was turned into a torture chamber by Russian soldiers.
"But I understand if people don't know this, they won't perceive it as it really is. It's an empire of evil."
Mr Tutov, a former member of the local self-government body in the Kharkiv region, was at home when three military men came for him.
He was thrown in a white van and taken to the police station.
"They took me to a room for interrogation. There they started to beat [me] right away," he says.
"They have a machine that shocks with electricity. They immediately put on their wires and started spinning [the machine]."
After torturing him with electric shocks, Mr Tutov says his captors pulled out their weapons.
"They started beating me with guns. They aimed at me with a gun, but they moved aside, shot to the side.
"A gun was shoved into my mouth. This was the first interrogation, it lasted one and a half hours."
Mr Tutov's torment was only beginning. He says he had a bag placed over his head before being taken back to his cell for the night. The torture started again the following day.
"The second interrogation lasted two hours. They beat me for two hours and I often lost consciousness," he says.
"They tied me to a chair with tape. And they began to shock me into consciousness.
"When they brought me back to the cell again, the guys immediately said that I was unlucky, that they were beating me badly and most likely those like me who came before me were no longer alive."
Three days passed and Mr Tutov was hauled into the interrogation room again. He says he was accused of being a member of a political party he had no affiliation with and was beaten for being a member of the Orthodox Church.
"They began to beat me and say; 'You will be a Muslim.' They started beating me hard. But I insisted: 'No, I won't. I'll stay an Orthodox.'"
Torture sites discovered across Kharkiv region
Local authorities estimate that at least 150 civilians were detained and tortured at Balakliia police station.
The police say that this is just one of 27 sites in the Kharkiv region that were turned into torture chambers. The ABC has visited three of them — in Balakliia, Izium and Kozacha Lopan.
Police officer Samir Huseinov entered the cells at the Balakliia police station soon after the city was liberated in September 2022. He says he was shocked by what he saw.
"When we opened the doors of the cells, we saw traces of blood on the walls and on the floor," he says.
"They tortured with tools, hammers, electric wires and gas masks. They closed the breathing holes [in the cells] and started to push in smoke or some poisonous substance. They did everything to make the person suffocate."
Major Huseinov says some people were tortured for having pro-Ukrainian views. Others were interrogated on suspicion of co-operating with Ukrainian soldiers. He knows of people who were detained for no apparent reason.
"I heard stories from men who were simply stopped on the street without any explanation and taken to these torture chambers. I spoke with a man who was held for 30 days without any explanation," he says.
Major Huseinov says some of his colleagues in the local police force were also targeted.
"There were cases where they interrogated police officers and used torture," he says.
"I personally know comrades who were tortured, kept in basements, who were encouraged to cooperate with the aggressor country."
Anatoliy Tutov says he was subjected to all kinds of accusations while he was being interrogated.
"They accused me of being a Nazi. To them we were all Nazis. That I am a Nazi, that I am an accomplice of the authorities, that I work for the SBU [security services]," he says.
Russian leaders implicated: UN Special Rapporteur
Australian lawyer Alice Jill Edwards is the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. She's collated around 50 forensic accounts from Ukrainians who claim they've been tortured.
Dr Edwards has told 7.30 that when it comes to degrading and illegal acts carried out by Russian soldiers in the Kharkiv region, the orders came from the top.
"My view is that it's extensive. My view is that it's state war policy," she says.
"These are not acts of aberrant soldiers who happen to be taking advantage of punishing individuals, through animosity and through opportunity.
"It's quite clear that there's a pattern, that there's state endorsement."
Mr Tutov was one of the 50 victims of torture who gave evidence to the Special Rapporteur.
Dr Edwards visited Ukraine to gather evidence for her report. She says the testimonies describe acts that are inhuman and in breach of international law. She will present a report on her findings to the United Nations Human Rights Council next month.
"Mr Tutov is one of a whole range of very brave individuals who are recounting their stories, including allegations of sexual forms of torture," she says.
"His testimony is consistent across a whole range of other individuals I've met from different regions within the areas occupied by the Russian Federation."
When asked whether it's possible that testimonies shared with her office have been made up or exaggerated as part of war-time propaganda, Dr Edwards says she believes the people she has spoken to.
"The range and scope of the allegations from all different types of people who have no collaboration with one another ... without being under the umbrella of the government ... that consistency, I think, is real."
Dr Edwards wrote to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asking for a response to the allegations contained in her report. Her office has yet to hear back.
"I have not received any replies to my letters of allegation. I've also not received any response when I did make inquiries [to Russia]," she says.
"I asked the Russian authorities if they could provide me with information of names and other details of individuals that they believe have been captured by Ukraine. I also received no reply to those inquiries."
Russia's Foreign Ministry was contacted for comment by 7.30 but did not respond.
The worst moment is when the cells fall silent
Mr Tutov is now a free man, reunited with his wife and running a salami and cheese shop at the local Balakliia markets.
He remains haunted by his experience.
In the last part of his detention, he was beaten up so badly that his ribs were broken and he was subjected to horrifying threats.
"They took out a knife, they said that they would gouge out my eyes, they wanted to cut off my ear, even my penis," he says.
He describes his captors as "non-human".
"I think that these are not people at all. Because people can't do that to people. These are maniacs," he says.
"They took pleasure in mocking me. They were happy to cut something off me, that I felt bad, that I was losing consciousness. They laughed and filmed it on their phones. These are not people."
Despite everything that happened to him inside the cells, Mr Tutov says that hearing others getting beaten up and tortured was even more difficult to cope with.
"The worst moment here was when they called women from other cells and beat them," he says.
"And during the interrogation they told me that they had taken my mother-in-law and my wife.
"I thought they were beating them because we didn't know who was here. And when the women scream, there is immediately a deathly silence, all the cells fall silent."
With nearly 20 per cent of Ukraine still under Russian control there are fears that widespread torture is continuing in occupied territory.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture is concerned about what could be happening in these regions.
"I have no reason to believe that the policy has stopped," Dr Edwards says
"They haven't replied to my request to send out to every soldier sent to fight that torture is prohibited and that there are no exceptions.
"I have no reason at this stage to believe that there have been any changes.
It may be hard for Mr Tutov and his fellow civilians who were held and tortured in Balakiia to get justice. Some of his captors are likely to be back in Russia, others may be in occupied Ukrainian territory.
But Mr Tutov believes another form of justice is coming their way.
"I am a believer. I am sure that God's punishment will overtake them," he says.
"The Lord will punish them. Sooner or later, every criminal is punished."
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