Ukrainian prisoners 'electrocuted and pray for death' in Russian torture jail

29 May 2023 , 05:02

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One inmate said prisoners were tortured in their cells during their first night (Image: Google Street View)

The harsh reality of the life for Ukranian civilians held inside a brutal Russian torture prison has been exposed.

It has been thought that several thousands of Ukranians have been captured and sent to Simferopol Detention Centre since the beginning of Russia ’s invasion of Ukraine.

Simferopol, known as one of the world’s most feared detention centres, has been a horrific experience for its inhabitants.

One of them, Alexander Tarasov, was captured and arrested in March 2022, for organising rallies against Russia was a prisoner. He was living in occupied Kherson at the time.

In May 2022, he was jailed in Simferopol, and has since spoken to anti-Kremlin Russian news site Meduza, about the reality of what goes on behind the prison gates.

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Ukrainian civilians were sent to the prison since the start of Russia's invasion of the country (Getty Images)

Alexander detailed how electric shocks were used as a form of punishment and torture, regardless of what those captured by Russia did – and ferocious dogs were also on hand in case prisoners tried to escape.

Speaking to journalist Lilia Yapparova, he said: “The charge seems to go through every muscle fibre in your body and erupt, and your muscles keep on contracting afterwards.

“When you’re being abused like that, you’re forced to suppress your defensive reflexes, because any resistance will just make it worse.”

Tarasov claims he was “tortured” in the basement of building captured by Russian in Kherson before going to prison.

They put electrodes on his ears and shocked him while demanding to know names of other protest organisers.

But that wasn't the worst of it, as a Russian agent shoved a gun up against his temple and threatened to shoot him.

Electric shocks, torture, threats and ferocious dogs are all staples inside Simferopol Detention Centre

Describing the prison as a “dungeon from the Middle Ages”, he went on: “On the nights of new arrivals, they would torture people right in the cells.”

Another former prisoner, Maxim, elaborated: “(During interrogations, FSB officers) immediately begin with threats of a sexual nature.

“Or things like, ‘we’ll send you to Luhansk, where the death penalty is legal, and they’ll shoot you'.

“They beat testimonies out of us for a criminal case on Ukraine’s violation of the rules of warfare. They asked whether we know anything about the shelling of homes and of the Mariupol Drama Theater.”

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Russia has constantly denied torturing prisons, as well as denying all forms of war crimes – despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

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