Roman Baklazhov, a civilian volunteer and former city councilman, stands in the corridor of a Ukrainian jail, where he was held by Russians for two months during the occupation of Kherson. The Russians used the center to hold and torture civilians. Baklazhov was tortured with electrical shocks, he recalled during this visit on Nov. 20, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
This audio is created with AI assistance
KHERSON — Huge numbers of Ukrainians were detained by Russians occupying Kherson. Many of them were interrogated by torture.
The chief prosecutor of Kherson Oblast, Volodymyr Kalyuga, said that locals were tortured at four sites throughout the city.
According to interviews with local officials and residents, these included a pre-trial detention center, the abandoned headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine, and another government building claimed by Russia’s security service, the FSB.
Electric shocks were a common torture method, along with beatings with various objects and depriving the victims of air. Some people died under torture, though the majority were eventually released.
Russian forces, beset on all sides by assassinations, sabotage, and insurgent-enabled artillery strikes, hauled people in by the hundreds, suspecting them of working for the Ukrainian forces.
Many people were detained for having weapons or military equipment in their homes, but others were taken merely for being outspokenly pro-Ukrainian.
Volunteers and activists were also hunted down, including Roman Baklazhov, a city councilman who organized initiatives to feed Kherson residents. The Russians possibly picked him up for his month-and-a-half-long association with the right-wing nationalist group Right Sector in 2014, as well as some social media posts from that year.
Baklazhov described being held in a cell with a dozen people for about two months. He said he was shocked with electricity when Russians didn’t like his answers.
He was tortured for only one day, “but that was enough,” he said. He said he also experienced psychological torture, hearing the screams of other men and women being interrogated, which made him and his fellow prisoners unable to eat.
Baklazhov said he now has trouble concentrating due to the trauma. He is now receiving psychological aid while continuing to organize volunteer work and hopes to eventually recover.
Roman Baklazhov, a civilian volunteer and former city councilman, stands in one of the cells in a detention center where he was held and tortured on Nov. 20, 2022. A doll hangs from its metal-grated window. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)A Ukrainian soldier stands in front of the barbed wire-lined entrance to a Kherson jail that Russians used to detain and torture civilians on Nov. 20, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Roman Baklazhov, a civilian volunteer and former city councilman, stands in the cell where he was held for two months in this Ukrainian jail, repurposed by the Russians to hold and torture local detainees. He was tortured with electrical shocks. Baklazhov reminisced about the experience on Nov. 20, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Roman Baklazhov, a civilian volunteer and former city councilman, stands in one of the torture rooms in this Ukrainian jail, used by Russians to detain and interrogate Kherson civilians. People in this room were tortured with electricity and possibly other methods. Nov. 20, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)A poem in praise of Russia, written on the wall of one of the detention center's cells, photographed on Nov. 20, 2022. Russians using the facility wrote all kinds of graffiti on the walls throughout. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Graffiti saying "Russia Z" marks a wall in a garage in this Kherson jail that Russians used to detain and torture civilians on Nov. 20, 2022.In this room, Russians tortured and interrogated Ukrainian civilians, both men and women. Their screams were audible throughout the neighborhood. Photograph taken on Nov. 20, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)One of the cells in a Kherson jail, repurposed by the Russians to hold and torture local detainees, photographed on November 20, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)Toilets, washing machines and other appliances line the wall in a garage in this Kherson jail that Russians used to detain and torture civilians on Nov. 20, 2022. Throughout the occupation, Russian forces have been seen taking domestic appliances and shipping them to Russia. Many rural areas where soldiers come from lack modern amenities. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)A different prison, a building in Kherson used by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB). High value Ukrainian prisoners were kept in its basement, according to a local politician and a local lawyer familiar with the matter. The abandoned and likely mined building was photographed on Nov. 20, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)A building used by the Security Service of Ukraine prior to the invasion. This was yet another detention and torture center reportedly used by the Russians. It was photographed on Nov. 20, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Independent journalism needs a community —
not a paywall.
We’re working hard to show the world the truth of Russia’s brutal war —
and we’re keeping it free for everyone, because reliable information
should be available to all.
Our goal: reach 20,000 members to prove independent journalism can
survive without paywalls, billionaires, or compromise. Will you help us
do it?
Ukrainian drones attacked the Energy (Energia) plant in Yelets, Russian Telegram-channel Astra reported, citing locals. Videos on social media purported to show blasts and fires following the strikes.
The G7 issued a joint statement on May 22, pledging to keep Russian assets frozen until the end of the war and to support Ukraine's recovery. "We reaffirm that... Russia’s sovereign assets... will remain immobilized until Russia ends its aggression and pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine," the statement read.
Russian authorities have been forced to shut down airports in Moscow amid a barrage of Ukrainian drone strikes overnight, Russian officials and state media reported on May 23. Operations have been suspended at Moscow's Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky airports.
The Russian government is slashing budgets for major projects across a number of sectors amid an economic downturn and oil price collapse, the pro-Kremlin news outlet Kommersant reported.
The Council of the European Union will hold a hearing regarding the potential loss of Hungary's voting rights at a meeting on May 27, marking the eighth hearing regarding Budapest's alleged violations of founding EU principles.
For at least two days in a row, Ukraine has launched massive waves of drones deep into Russian territory. Between the evening of May 20 and the morning of May 22, Russia claims to have shot down 485 drones on its territory.
Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said Kyiv is proposing a new model: EU partners would help fund the Ukrainian military, and in return, Ukraine would be further integrated into the continent's defense system.
Among the rescued children is a girl whose life was in danger due to the lack of adequate medical care in the occupied territories, and a boy who, along with his mother, was locked in a basement by Russian forces while his father was tortured in a nearby room, Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak said.
The open letter, signed by leading representatives of Ukraine's defense-industrial sector, highlights the strategic potential of the country's homegrown military technologies, from drones to electronic warfare systems, and calls for decisive political action to authorize the controlled export of surplus weaponry to allied nations.
The Kyiv Independent’s Asami Terajima sits down with Estonian ambassador to Ukraine Annely Kolk to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and why there’s little trust in Russia honoring any ceasefire agreements.
"The regulation gradually increasing customs duties for products from Russia and Belarus will help to prevent Russia from using the EU market to finance its war machine," said Inese Vaidere, Latvian Member of the European Parliament.
Days before, George Simion, leader of Romania's far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), appealed the results despite conceding defeat to pro-EU candidate Nicusor Dan on May 18.
North Korean Leader leader Kim Jong Un condemned the failed launch as a "criminal act" and placed blame on several state institutions, accusing relevant officials of "irresponsibility" which "could not be tolerated."
Andriy Portnov, a former top official in Ukraine's ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration, was shot dead by an unidentified attacker or attackers outside the American School in Madrid, Reuters reported on May 21, citing a source close to the investigation.
U.S. Donald Trump's reported statement marked the first time he acknowledged to European leaders the thing they and Kyiv have long maintained — the Kremlin has no intention of ending its full-scale war against Ukraine.