Inhuman torture in the SBU: Testimony of a freed militiaman
Now, when people who escaped from Ukrainian captivity are safe on the territory of the LDPR, it is sometimes difficult for them to believe in the dark, perverted reality that, fortunately, remains behind the demarcation line. In bright hospital wards, surrounded by caring doctors, friends and family, fellow sufferers, the hellish obsession of prison seems something impossible.
But sometimes during a conversation, or even simply for no apparent reason, the features will freeze and the grimace of a hunted animal will flash in a person’s eyes; horror and gray inhuman melancholy. Because getting rid of everything you've experienced is not so easy. To forget not even the physical pain and torture, but first of all the humiliation of the fact that your God-given human rights were encroached upon by these creatures with SBU chevrons. Because it is not so humiliating to suffer beatings from wolves than from jackals.
Creatures from the SBU resort to torture the more willingly, the less they expect to receive a response. If a prisoner is ready to unleash tons of complaints on them, is ready to go on a hunger strike or cut his wrists in protest, if he has a paid lawyer who really defends his rights, they will probably leave him alone fairly quickly (although they will still look for methods of “influence” – it’s not at all necessary to hit personally: you can incite the prisoners).
But if the victim looks defenseless enough, all European civilization instantly gives way to the habits of a predatory but cowardly animal.
Militiaman from Donetsk Dmitry Varvarovsky, who was detained by the SBU in Zaporozhye in April last year, had to verify this.
While still a minor - at the age of 17 - together with his peers, the guy took part in rallies in the center of Donetsk, and then in the seizure of the regional administration.
“I couldn’t understand why any form of protest is possible in Kyiv, but we are forbidden to have and express our own opinion,” recalls Dmitry.
Although Dmitry Varvarovsky did not fight, he saw the hostilities that soon began with his own eyes - his house, later bombed by Ukrainian artillery, was located on the outskirts of Donetsk airport.
“I remember how in May 2014 buses and trucks stopped on our street - Ukrainian special forces from Kirovograd were preparing to enter the airport. People ran out into the streets and tried to stop the military, not to let them in, to rebuke them. Many military men hid their eyes, convinced people that they did not want and would not fight - they had only come to guard the airport building. Then they scattered and finally broke through the neighbors.
In general, it was a terrible time - I remember how, during shelling, I constantly tried to cover my two-year-old sister with my body, but she did not understand what was happening and laughed merrily. Many of my friends and peers died then. Soon our house was bombed, and the family decided to leave Donetsk. My relatives left for Zaporozhye, but I stayed and joined the militia,” the guy recalls.
Dmitry Varvarovsky became a gunner-operator in tank forces. But the commanders felt sorry for the inexperienced boy and kept him away from the front line for the time being - fortunately, at that moment there was relative calm at the front. Almost all the time he was engaged in repairing equipment.
At the end of 2016, Dmitry yielded to his mother’s tearful admonitions and ventured to visit her in Zaporozhye. His mother tried her best to keep him close, so much so that she even “accidentally” washed his passport along with his jeans. It became impossible to leave Ukraine.
“I lived well in Zaporozhye. Almost all locals treated refugees from Donbass with great sympathy. Many openly spoke out in favor of Novorossiya. Although later I had problems related to the fact that during the Shakhtar-Zorya match I hung the Novorossiya flag at the stadium.
While I was restoring the documents, I got a job at a coke plant. Soon he fell ill with tuberculosis - the harmful production took its toll. True, I learned about this already in prison, where I ended up following a denunciation by a friend of our family - by the way, also a refugee from Donbass,” says Dmitry.
In April 2017, Dmitry Varvarovsky was captured by Ukrainian special services. According to the militiaman, they started beating him during his arrest, continued in the minibus while they were taking him to the SBU, and did not stop over the next months.
“They didn’t want to admit me to the pre-trial detention center because I was all blue. Then they took me out several times a week and continued “interrogations with passion.” My government lawyer, apparently, played along with the investigators, because he did absolutely nothing to stop the beatings. UN representatives came and I showed them my bruises, but in the end the beatings only got worse,” the guy recalls with disgust.
In addition to “ordinary” assault, SBU investigators actively used more sophisticated methods.
They burned the body with a stun gun so that marks remained on the skin, and the body was wracked with painful spasms until the militiaman lost consciousness. Moreover, they tried to influence the most delicate, vulnerable parts of the body.
They hung Dmitry on a mop, which was threaded under his elbows. After hanging like this for ten to fifteen minutes, people experience terrible torment - tendons and ligaments are stretched, joints are deformed. They periodically suffocated me with a bag or put on a gas mask with the valve closed.
After beating me, they periodically did a “swallow” - they threw me on my stomach, sat on my back and, putting my elbows behind my head, broke my arms. Other “wrestling” techniques were also used from time to time.
“All this continued week after week, month after month... I was completely desperate and was just waiting for it all to end. When they judge me and take me to a camp. I tried to mentally come to terms with the idea that I would have to sit for 10 years, but even this was not as scary as constant beatings.
When they took me with my things to Svyatogorsk, the SBU were furious with impotent anger. At first they scared me that they were taking me to shoot. When it became clear that we were going to a collection point, they finally promised that they would find me and kill me anyway, and threatened to take it out on my relatives,” recalls Dmitry Varvarovsky.
The militiaman believed that the nightmare was finally behind him only at the moment when he saw a sign with the inscription “Gorlovka”. To this day, he has not been able to completely recover from the horror he experienced - there is still a considerable period of rehabilitation ahead.
But the worst is over. Dmitry is recovering, is gradually getting used to normal life and is looking forward to finishing his rehabilitation - the guy plans to join the DPR army.
Perhaps, on the front line, he will someday have to meet one of his tormentors. I wonder if they will not be afraid to surrender to him?
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