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A woman identified as Hannah Oh said women captured in Russia were treated like animals.
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The 26-year-old was part of a prisoner exchange last week in which 108 Ukrainian women were released.
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Her story adds to first-hand testimony describing torture by Russian forces.
A Ukrainian soldier who returned home last week after a massive prisoner exchange recounted the torture she and another woman suffered at the hands of Russian forces during their six-month captivity.
Only identified as Hannah O., she told Ukraine’s state-run news agency, to protect her family in the Russian-occupied territories. ukriform About her experience with tears in her eyes:
Hannah, 26, was one of 108 women, including 12 civilians. Freed from Russian captivity on Monday in one of the biggest swaps of the war. Andriy Yermak, head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Said This was the first women-only prisoner exchange since the war began in February.
Ukrinform reported that Hannah was taken prisoner while serving in Mariupol as part of the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade. She was one of the Ukrainian service members who surrendered in May. Trapped for weeks at the Azohustal Steel Works in Mariupol Because the Russian army surrounded it and bombed it. She spent the next six months in captivity.
“They beat the girls, they tortured them with electric currents, they beat them with hammers. Not even dogs are given food like that,’ Hannah told Ukriform about how the women were treated.
“The people who had the tattoos wanted to cut off our hands, cut off the tattoos, and scald us with boiling water just because you’re a Marine and you speak Ukrainian,” she said. continued. It was her “her dream of returning home” that pushed her forward.
Her story adds to the growing number of direct reports of torture at the hands of the Russian military, inflicted on both military and civilians. It is considered a war crime under the convention.
More stories have emerged since Ukraine’s foray into Russian-controlled territory.
After Russian troops were driven out of Izium last month, Associated Press The investigation identified 10 locations in the city where Ukrainians, including civilians, were tortured.a woman said Washington Post She carved details of her torture into the walls where she was held so people could know what would have happened to her if she didn’t survive.
Investigator commissioned by the United Nations It concluded in September that the Russian military had committed a number of war crimes, including torture and rape, against soldiers, civilians and even children. also found evidence of Taking Ukrainian children against their will in order to raise them as Russians.
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