In Ukraine, the memory of torture by the Russian occupier haunts a recently liberated Ukrainian village.

This is a house hidden by a large gate behind a school in the recently liberated village of Velika Oleksandrivka (Greater Alexandria), near Kherson, very close to the front lines, after eight months of occupation. The Russians settled in the home of the local police chief.

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Lida lives next door and is still haunted by screams. “The screams were terrible, Reminds me of the old lady. I have heard it four times. I saw the youth going to the basement. It was so unbearable that I had to go back to my house.”

“Neighbors who visited said that the walls and floor were covered with blood, and that the Russians were torturing them with electric shocks: it was unimaginable to hear that…”

Irina was tortured in this basement along with her husband and her grandmother. She refuses to testify: Nina, her friend, is the one who describes the electric torture and mock executions.

“They tortured them in the basement, Nina remembered. She was barefoot and it was cold. They handcuffed her and her husband and asked them to tell them what information because they suspected them of knowing things.”

“They turned on the power … and then they put a sack over his head, on the edge of the river, making him believe they were going to hang him.”

“Yes, they tortured people, Resumes Nina. Some died as a result of torture. For example, they found something on the cell phone of someone I know: they took him to this basement. When they got him out, he died very quickly. They are very cruel, especially the soldiers of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.”

Most were reported by neighbors. In this village, two women say that many citizens collaborated with the occupier and today they walk with their heads held high as if nothing had happened.

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