On December 5, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced 30-year-old prisoner of war from the Ukrainian special forces unit "Azov"* Oleksandr Maksymchuk to 20 years in a high-security colony. He was accused of participating in a "terrorist community" and undergoing training for terrorist activities. Maksymchuk spoke in court about torture in Taganrog Detention Center-2 and later shared specific details with a correspondent from "Mediazona"**.
Maksymchuk was captured in May 2022 when he, along with other Ukrainian soldiers, exited the besieged "Azovstal" plant in Mariupol. In the fall, he ended up in Taganrog Detention Center-2, where, as he stated, "conceivable and inconceivable methods of pressure were applied."
In court, the prisoner immediately declared that he did not plead guilty and spoke about the torture, including starvation, to which he was subjected in Detention Center-2. As he told the "Mediazona" correspondent, he was tortured twice, repeatedly beaten, subjected to electric shocks to force him to recognize "Azov" as a terrorist organization. However, after this court, he was transferred from Rostov Detention Center-5 back to Taganrog, under the pretext that there was no space in the Rostov detention center.
After this, Maksymchuk was twice connected to sessions via video link from Taganrog Detention Center-2, each time requesting to be brought to court, with visible signs of beatings on his face.
On October 17, he asked Judge Pavel Gubarev to call an ambulance for him in the detention center, as he had all the symptoms of a concussion after being beaten.
Maksymchuk was brought to the court session and then returned to Taganrog. At the session on November 19, he recounted that after returning to Taganrog from Rostov, he was tortured with electricity, beaten with water pipes, fists, feet, his eyes and hands were tied with tape, and he was hung upside down. During the abuse, he lost consciousness several times. The prisoner was demanded to plead guilty in court, "repent," and abandon his lawyer.
"I am a soldier, I followed the orders of the state of Ukraine. I regret nothing, I repent of nothing," said Maksymchuk.
Earlier, an expert from the Ukrainian human rights organization "Center for Civil Liberties" Mykhailo Savva, who documents facts of Russian war crimes against Ukrainian citizens, told "First Department"** that Ukrainian prisoners of war are held in 182 locations, but Taganrog Detention Center-2 is known for its torture, starvation, and beatings.
* Recognized as a "terrorist" organization in Russia.
** Recognized as "foreign agents" in Russia.
Photo: Mediazona