They call it 'The Hole': Ukrainians describe horrors of Kherson occupation

Residents of Kherson, Ukraine call the two-storey station 'The Hole'. Vitalii Serdiuk said that he was fortunate to survive.

The retired medical equipment repairman said: "I hung onto life," as he described his experience in Russian detention just two blocks away from the apartment he and his wife share in a small Soviet-era apartment.

No. 3, Energy Workers' Street was the most famous of the many sites where people were tortured and interrogated during Russia's nine month occupation. Another large prison was another.

Two residents who live in apartments overlooking the courtyard of the police station claimed they saw bodies covered in white sheets being taken from their building and stored in a garage before being thrown into garbage trucks.

Questions about Serdiuk's account, or those of other Kherson-based journalists were not answered by the Kremlin or Russia's defense ministry.

Moscow rejected the allegations of abuse against soldiers and civilians, and accused Ukraine of staging such abuses at places like Bucha.

The UN human right office reported Tuesday (15 November) that it found evidence that both warring sides tortured prisoners of war. This is classified by the International Criminal Court as a war crime. A U.N. official stated that Russian abuse was "quite systematic".

There is evidence of abuses mounting as Russian security forces withdraw from large swathes in the north, east, and south.

People who opposed Russia's occupation were held in Kherson. Residents, such as Serdiuk believed to have information on enemy soldiers' positions as well as possible underground resistance fighters and associates.

Serdiuk claimed that he was beat on his legs, back, and torso using a truncheon, and shocked with electrodes wired through his scrotum. This was in response to a Russian official asking for information about his son, a soldier with the Ukrainian army.

"I didn’t tell him anything. I don't know," was the only answer, the 65-year old said in his apartment. It was lit by one candle.

'PURE SADISM'

After the withdrawal of Russian troops across the Dnipro River, grim memories of Kherson's life under occupation have been followed by the joy and relief with which Ukrainian soldiers retook the capital on Friday (11 November).

Two days later, President Volodymyr Zeleskiy stated that investigators had found more than 400 Russian war crimes and discovered the bodies of both civilians and servicemen in Kherson region areas freed from Russian occupation.

Oleh (20 years old) said that he saw five bodies being taken out. He lives in an apartment block with the station. "We could see hands hanging from sheets, and we believed these to be corpses," he said.

Svytlana Besnik (41), who lives in the same block as the station and works in a small shop between the building and station, also recalls seeing bodies being removed by prisoners.

She said that they would take dead people out and throw them in a truck along with the garbage. "We witnessed pure sadism."

An officer who refused to be identified said that 12 people were held in small cages. This was confirmed by Serdiuk.

Neighbors recalled hearing the screams coming from the station. They said they heard the Russians emerge wearing balaclavas that covered all of their eyes.

Bestanik said: "They came into the shop every single day. I chose not to speak to them. They were too scary for me."

RESISTANCE FIGHTERS

Aliona Lapchuk claimed that she fled Kherson with her oldest son in April following a frightening ordeal at hands of Russian security personnel on March 27th, the last time she saw Vitaliy.

According to Lapchuk Vitaliy was an underground resistance fighter ever since Russian troops seized Kherson March 2. She became concerned when he didn't answer her calls.

She said that soon after she spoke, three cars bearing the Russian "Z” sign appeared at her mother’s house. Vitaliy was severely beaten by them.

They threatened to rip out her teeth if she tried to berate them. She said that they took their laptops and mobile phones, then found weapons in the basement.

They brutally beat her husband in the basement before pulling him out.

Lapchuk was accompanied by her eldest son Andriy. They were then hooded, and taken to the Lutheran Street police station in Kherson. She could hear her husband being interrogated through the wall. Later, she and Andriy were released.

Lapchuk left Kherson and wrote to anyone she could to find her husband.

She claimed that she received a call from a pathologist on June 9 and was told to call her next day. She knew instantly Vitaliy was gone.

She said that his body was found floating in the river. Photographs taken by a pathologist showed a birth mark on his shoulder.

Lapchuk claimed that she paid Vitaliy's burial and has yet to visit the grave.

She believes her husband was betrayed by someone close to her.

'THE HOLE'

Ruslan, 52 years old, owns a beer shop opposite the station where Serdiuk was being held. He said that daily Russian-made Ural trucks pulled up in front of the grey front door at the start of the occupation.

He said that detainees would be thrown from the back with their hands bound and their heads covered in bags.

He said: "This place was called Yama (The Hole)."

Serhii Poliako, 48, who is a trader and lives just across the street, agreed with Ruslan.

He stated that Russian national guard troops had been deployed to the site for several weeks, but were soon replaced by men driving vehicles embossed in the letter "V", which was when the screams began.

He said: "If there's a hell on Earth, it was there."

He stated that the Russians had released those who were being held at the station for preparations for their withdrawal two weeks ago.

Serdiuk believes that he was lied to by an informant who claimed to be the father of a Ukrainian soldier.

Russian security agents handcuffed him and placed a bag on his head. They forced him to bend at his waist, then frog-marched them into a vehicle.

He was taken to the station and placed in a cramped cell that made it impossible for him to move when he lay down. Prisoners were only allowed to eat one meal a day for some days.

He was then hooded and his hands tied, and taken to a cellar. He said that the torture and interrogation took about 90 minutes.

Serdiuk stated that his Russian interrogator had all his details. He said that if he didn't cooperate, he would have his spouse arrested and phone his son.

He was released two days later without explanation. His wife found him near the shop where Bestanik works. He was almost unable to walk.

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