Residents in Ukraine's southern city of Kherson call the two-storey police station 'The Hole'. Vitalii Serdiuk, a pensioner, said he was lucky to make it out alive.
Nine-month occupation ended on Friday as Russians retreatedU.N. officials say both sides have abused prisoners of war
Two residents living in an apartment block overlooking the police station courtyard said they saw bodies wrapped in white sheets being carried from the building, stored in a garage and later tossed into refuse trucks to be taken away.The Kremlin and Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to questions about Serdiuk's account or that of others Reuters spoke to in Kherson.
Serdiuk said he was beaten on his legs, back and torso with a truncheon and shocked with electrodes wired to his scrotum by a Russian official demanding to know the whereabouts and unit of his son, a soldier in the Ukrainian army. Speaking separately, Svytlana Bestanik, 41, who lives in the same block and works at a small store between the building and the station, also recalled seeing prisoners carrying out bodies.
Neighbours recounted hearing screams of men and women coming from the station and said that whenever the Russians emerged, they wore balaclavas concealing all but their eyes. The soldiers, who identified themselves as Russian troops, threatened to smash out her teeth when she tried to berate them. They confiscated their mobile phones and laptops, she said, and then discovered weapons in the basement."He didn't walk out of the basement; they dragged him out. They broke through his cheek bone," she said, sobbing, in the village of Krasne, some 100 km west of Kherson.
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