Russian troops operated a torture chamber in Belarus in the spring of 2022, the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) reported on Nov. 28. Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians abducted from Ukraine were reportedly held there.
The chamber was located on Belarusian government-owned property in the town of Naroulia, not far from the border with Ukraine, according to BIC.
The Russian military has reportedly set up a camp in Naroulia for people captured in Kyiv Oblast during the early stages of the full-scale war.
In comments to BIC, human rights activists described the Naroulia camp as a place where the treatment of civilian hostages “was among the most brutal.”
Lawyer Yulia Polekhina, working with the Sich human rights group, said that prisoners were tortured there.
Polekhina’s words echo those of former prisoners who went through Naroulia.
“They beat up civilians there really hard. One could hear constant screaming there,” said Bohdan Lysenko, a soldier with the Ukrainian Armed Forces who was captured by the Russian military and brought to the camp in March 2022, in a comment to BIC.
According to the investigation, the camp was located in the compound owned by Pripyatski Alyans on Kamsamolskaya Street. Owned by the Belarusian state, the company conducts catering and food procurement for regional institutions.
The company did not comment on the allegations and advised to contact local authorities for more information.
The Reckoning Project, the Ukrainian-American organization that records human rights violations, suggests that the actions of the Russian military in Naroulia may indicate a violation of the Geneva Convention provisions, which prohibit forced displacement of civilians and ban keeping military personnel and civilians at the same detention center.
The Russian military was reportedly present at the location at least until early May 2022.
Russia has terrorized Ukrainians in torture chambers across the occupied territories, with previous reports indicating the use of this tactic in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, as well as the previously occupied areas of Kherson Oblast.
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko provided Belarus territory for Russia to launch the all-out war against Ukraine in February 2022. Belarus hosted Russian troops, served as a launchpad for Russian missile attacks against Ukraine, and supplied weapons to the Kremlin.
Belarus also took part in the abduction of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories.
(Updated: )
