"They beat so that the sticks were breaking": the prisoners of prisoners told why prisoners of prisoners were tortured in the Russian Federation

At the beginning of a full -scale invasion, the head of the FSVP department held a meeting with a detachment of special forces and stated that there would that such an order was given by the management of the Federal Sentence Service. They are beaten so that sticks break. This is stated in The Wall Street Journal. The journalists of the publication talked with three employees of the institutions of serving sentences in the Russian Federation, who have escaped from Russia and are now abroad.

They told terrible details about atrocities in Russian captivity. According to the newspaper, in March 2022 the head of the FSVP department from St. Petersburg and Leningrad region Igor Potapenko held a meeting with a detachment of the FSVP special forces. It concerned the maintenance of prisoners of war. Potapenko stated that there would be no restrictions on violence against them - and urged to "be cruel", "not regret" them.

The same assignments were provided by the FSVP special forces in other regions of Russia. The publication was discussed with three former employees of the Russian prison system - two special forces officers and a member of the medical team. They went abroad and testified to investigators of the International Criminal Court. They stated that they were released from the FSVP system "before they were forced to torture," but maintained the connection with the colleagues who remained there.

According to two former FSVP special officers, they were present at a meeting with Potapenko in March 2022 and interpreted his instructions as a map blanche for violence. In the same March 2022, the administration of correctional institutions across Russia received letters demanding to allocate individual floors, parts of buildings or even whole buildings for Ukrainian prisoners.

The staff of the establishments here constantly went to balaclava because they were afraid that they would be recognized by the prisoners after their release. Eyewitnesses say that the guards complained that the batteries sit in electric stationers from frequent use too quickly. They also say that the Ukrainians were beaten until the sticks were broken. Then they began to use pipes.

It is noted that Ukrainians were beaten in the same places intentionally so that the wounds do not heal, but to cause infection. The WSJ source reported that at least one captive died as a result. WSJ also talked to two Ukrainians, 25-year-old Pavel Afisov and Andriy Egorov, who spent about 30 months in Russian captivity and were released as part of the exchange in October 2024.

AFFISOV said that after the stage in the Tver colony, his sections to the goal, displaced and forced to shout "Glory to Russia, the glory of the special forces", and then ordered to go forward - still naked - and singing hymns of Russia and the USSR. When he said he did not know the words, he was beaten. Egorov, who was in the Bryansk region, said that the Ukrainians were forced to run with mattresses over their heads, and then lined up under the wall and beat on the ribs.

Also under the blows were forced to squeeze and squat. He refused to work with the psychologist after his release, saying: "If you didn't go through what I passed, you will not be able to help me. " In June 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that nearly 6. 5 thousand Ukrainian soldiers were in Russian captivity. In October, The New York Times wrote about nearly 8,000 military and 22,000 civilians from Ukraine, citing Ukrainian authorities and human rights activists.