in southern Ukraine, locals recount the torture inflicted by the Russian army

It is a very small village, in the middle of the countryside. In Pisky, near Donetsk in southern Ukraine, the distant sound of an explosion still resounds from time to time. The frontline is 20 kilometers away, but two months ago Russian forces invaded this village, where Maria lives, in search of former Ukrainian fighters from Donbass: “They entered our house, and took my son, because he had fought against them for three years, in eastern Ukraine. They blindfolded him, so he couldn’t see who reported him.”

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Yevhen, 37, then finds himself with his hands tied behind his back, led by Russian soldiers to the school in the town, which has become their base camp. Tortured for 24 hours, because he refuses to give other names, he is taken the next day, a little further into the countryside: “They shot him, twice. One of the bullets went eight millimeters from the heart. And my son played dead. When the Russians moved away, he started crawling back to the village .” Today taken care of in the hospital of Mykolaiv, Yévhenn will live, only his left arm no longer works. Maria’s eyes mist thinking of her son’s suffering. But she is relieved, at least, that the Russian army has left her village of Pisky.

In several other villages, north of Kherson, victims of torture also testify, like this man beaten up, killed, in the heart of Lotskyne. It’s a group of teenagers who say: “Of course we knew him, he was a teacher here, in the common.”

Further north, in Bachtanka, a center welcomes civilians fleeing the villages of the region, which have fallen into Russian hands. Tatiana has left hers, Snihourivka, which has been occupied for a month: “When they arrived, they looted our stores, and brought us food, we who were hiding in the cellars. The children were happy, so we said nothing. They wanted us to believe that they were good people . But it’s all rubbish.”

In the apartment of the mother of Tatyana, there is no more roof, no more windows. And her neighbor is dead, killed by shrapnel. She now lives 60 km from her home and will not return to her village as long as the Russian army is there.