A damning new investigation has revealed the horrific torture used by Russian military commanders to force terrified civilians to fight and die on the front lines in Ukraine for Vladimir Putin’s special military operation.
Independent media outlet ASTRA discovered a large number of “torture cellars” where mobilized soldiers are reportedly handcuffed, beaten and forced to go to war.
At one specific location – a destroyed building on the territory of the headquarters of the 272nd Motorized Rifle Regiment in the Nizhny Novgorod region – the men are being unlawfully detained and subjected to horrific violence.
Shocking images show the interior of this factory full of suffering, and another place in Russian-occupied Ukraine where shackled prisoners cower.
Officially, neither site exists. But they are designed to break the will of each prisoner, forcing them to accept being sent to the meat grinder.
Independent media outlet ASTRA discovered a series of what it described as ‘torture cellars’
Shocking images show the interior of this factory of suffering
Prisoners in the facility are being held illegally and subjected to horrific violence in an attempt to force them back into the war.
The appalling conditions can be seen at the facility in Nizhny Novgorod
In Nizhny Novgorod, men are being held for days under military police surveillance without water, food or toilets, a newspaper investigation has revealed.
They are “kept like cattle” under the watchful eye of the ruthless Captain Bogdan Romanov, the outlet reported, and the prisoners are often excluded from medical examinations or operations, even though many have war wounds.
According to ASTRA, a mutilated soldier was even held despite having lost a leg.
At least three prisoners had their ribs broken with a police baton and were sent back to war. Others were terrorized with powerful Airsoft grenades that look exactly like the real ones.
Meanwhile, in another “concentration camp” in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, a “torture conveyor belt” is operating in the former Petrovskaya mine.
Among the prisoners are soldiers who refused to take part in the infamous Russian “meat grinder” attacks at the front.
Others are being held for attempting to escape or for other alleged offenses.
At the Petrovskaya site, people perceived as enemies of Russia are also abused or exterminated.
One of the alleged detainees was Russell Bentley, a US citizen who fought alongside pro-Putin forces in Ukraine after the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The 63-year-old Texan who became a Putin apologist was an outspoken supporter of the war, but is said to have fallen out with the authorities in Donetsk.
Bentley was reported dead 11 days after he disappeared in the Donetsk region in April.
According to ASTRA, he was “tortured in the Petrovskaya mine” and may have died there.
Prisoners sit in a military bed in the Petrvoskaya mine in Donetsk
This image shows prisoners handcuffed together, while some are also chained to bed frames and pipes to prevent them from escaping
Ilya Ivanov, alleged mastermind behind Russian 5th Brigade torture camp in Donetsk
One of the alleged Donetsk mine captives was Russell Bentley, an American citizen who fought alongside pro-Putin forces in Ukraine
The torture complex in Donetsk is believed to be headed by Ilya Ivanov, deputy commander of the 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade.
According to some soldiers who had the misfortune to pass through here, his commanders forced their subordinates to commit “meat attacks” by torturing them.
“They bring the soldiers there with bags over their heads,” said a former prisoner.
‘They don’t feed them. They give you a bag if you want to go to the toilet.
‘When they locked me up, they hung us from the ceiling with chains by our arms and legs.’
But according to the ASTRA report, this prison is also used by the brigade commanders to profit from the war.
Donetsk human rights activist Maksim Vedoprav said of the torture mine’s purpose: “It’s not just sadism. There’s one main reason: money.”
The terror prison is a scam that takes Russian army salaries and compensation payments for intimidated men in its dungeons, he said.
‘If you shoot a man in the legs, you get 3 million rubles [£25,500] for the wound. They write a power of attorney for their people.
A man dies – you get 6 million rubles [£51,000] for the dead.
‘And while he serves them, but in reality sits in a cellar [cell]they receive 200,000 [£1,700] for him [in salary payments] every month.
‘Excellent business. In fact, the first thing anyone in the basement does is take away their payroll card or force them to rewrite a power of attorney for payments to fictitious persons.
‘They’re all in the basement, but no one gets their money.’
