Torture of “separatists” in the SBU. The details are not for the faint of heart.
-Where is he going?! To us?
- No, to the airport. Although no, it’s better to go to the headquarters of the Azovites.
– To a boarding school or a boat house?
- Boat room.
The Azov brigade in Mariupol was located in several places. The headquarters is in the building of a boarding school on the left bank of the city in the Ordzhonikidze district, the rest are in the premises of one of the Ilyich boat stations in the Primorsky district.
Escorting the detainee, a young fighter from Alpha (officially called the Center for Special Operations to Combat Terrorism and Protect Participants in Criminal Proceedings and Law Enforcement Officers of the Security Service of Ukraine) looked with some disgusted pity at the separatist stumbling along.
The obvious hard worker with disheveled hair, a dazed smile and a nose dripping from a broken nose did not give the impression of a villain. The employee already knew what would happen to him next. But an order is an order.
"Alphonse" had to hurry up. There were only four of them at the command, the seconded soldiers worked according to their own plan, and there were many tasks. Of course, the main backbone was not the personnel, but “Azov” and “Holy Virgin Mary,” but he had enough work.
*****
After the Donetsk people seized the building of the regional department of the SBU, local employees in Donetsk and the region remained “in their apartments” for some time, working mainly on the Internet and waiting for orders. Only from mid-June and over the next month, orders increasingly came from Kyiv to relocate to Mariupol. Some went, some didn't.
There, the SBU department for the Donetsk region is located in the 4-story administrative building of the Main Department of the SBU at the address: st. Georgievskaya, 77. It became the center of activity of the Ukrainian special services in relation to the DPR.
Mariupol, Georgievskaya street, 77, administrative building of the SBU Department for the Donetsk region
Initially, the heavy-drinking veteran of military counterintelligence, Colonel V.N. Lizogub, was appointed acting head of the department.
The regional administration immediately formed four armed operational groups of employees who were tasked with identifying and detaining persons involved in the DPR in the territory of Starobeshevo, Ugledar, and Novoazovsk.
And here the SBU officers, following the rest of Ukraine, plunged into the abyss of violent madness. The SBU was closely coordinated with the “St. Mary”, “Azov” and “Dnepr” battalions, and its operatives fully experienced the taste of blood.
If in peacetime the “separatists” in the Security Service of Ukraine were dealt with by the unit for the protection of national statehood, then in the new conditions this task, as well as work against Russia, was assigned to all units of the Ukrainian special services without exception.
In the so-called “Donetsk” department of the SBU, the counterintelligence department under the leadership of Alexander Kharaberyush, who sincerely hates the DPR and Russia, personally participates in military campaigns against the DPR, voluptuously tortures and shoots militias, showed particular zeal in this matter. In fact, bosses set an example for their subordinates.
The deputy head of the department S. Zhitenev and the heads of sectors D. Lisun and A. Yatsenko were extremely zealous. Some even “found themselves” in torture, acquiring individual specialization. For example, captain Lyashko A.A. (what does a last name do to people?) masterfully mastered the combination of water and electric shock.
It was these people who organized a sophisticated system of torture of prisoners and civilians suspected of sympathizing with the DPR.
According to the official statistics of the counterintelligence department alone, in this one unit, from May to November 15, 2014, officers carried out 60 arrests of DPR activists, carried out 4 criminal cases under Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (high treason), 1 under Art. 114 of the Criminal Code (espionage), more than 20 cases - under Article 258 of Appendix 3 of the Criminal Code (participation in terrorist activities).
Due to poor sound insulation in the SBU building (an extensive network of ventilation ducts), the sounds of torture were heard in almost all rooms, which is why many employees were forced to leave the building during the torture.
The most sophisticated torture, requiring special equipment, or in which the death of the tortured was assumed, was carried out at the base of the Azov battalion at the Mariupol airport or other facilities.
Another innovation adopted by these characters was the detention of random civilians for further exchange for captured Ukrainian military personnel.
Against this background, such pranks as, for example, instructions to subordinates from the head of the economic department A. Babak about extortion at checkpoints from owners of cars transporting scrap metal, grain and other inventory items to the Mariupol port (1000 hryvnia from one car with coal and 500 hryvnia - with scrap metal) did not look so significant.
The executioners, who had acquired a taste for it, were seriously upset by the activity of the Military Prosecutor's Office, which very gently, but still sometimes asked questions about the complaints of individual victims.
So, in the fall of 2014, one of the senior operatives, Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Bogach, was even detained, whose mask was pulled off during the kidnapping of a person in the Amstor store. A day later, the body of the kidnapped man was found on one of the city streets. Random passers-by and acquaintances of the murdered man identified the criminal, which was confirmed by a recording from one of the CCTV cameras, and the prosecutors had no choice but to detain the scoundrel. True, he was quickly released and simply put “at disposal,” but the SBU officers were outraged even by “such pandering to the separatists.”
However, many detectives, fearing the inevitable responsibility for their actions in the future, took the path of least resistance. In order to be able to report to management for what they had done, but without getting their hands dirty, they transferred their activity to the Internet, which was welcomed as a form of informational and psychological influence.
Non-stop resources were created, such as “Novostidonbassa”, “New Orders” of the DPR”, “Voices of Gorlovka Residents” and many others.
The reporting activities began to include the organization of rallies “against the DPR” and in support of Ukraine.
At the same time, in addition to independent activity on the Internet, employees began to carry out punitive work against their information opponents. For example, Oleg Seliverstov, deputy head of the national statehood department, having entered into a debate at one of the forums with a Mariupol DPR activist and having suffered an insulting defeat in rhetoric, decided to take revenge. The girl Olga was identified by him, detained and tortured.
*****
... “Alfovets” and the detainee drove up to the building that now housed the SBU department in the Donetsk region. The separator was not accepted at any of the Azov bases, stating that the issue had not been agreed upon with the leadership. After calling the counterintelligence department, which initiated the arrest, they decided to bring the detainee to the city council.
The driver, having driven around the main entrance on Georgievskaya Street, entered the control area from the side of the emergency gate from Central. Having passed a canopy under which there were several official vehicles, a canteen and a gym, where seconded Alfa men from other departments now lived, he stopped at the end entrance. The fighter pulled out the separatist by the elbow, whose hands were handcuffed behind his back. He didn't resist. The look is dull, the head sways limply when walking.
We went inside and, having passed the entrance to the assembly hall, approached the premises of the operational duty officer, to whom the guard informed that the detainee was being delivered to Kharaberyush. The officer nodded understandingly.
We walked past the offices of employees of the economic department and the state secrets protection sector, and paused at the door of the deputy head of the department, Zhitenev, who was leaving the premises. Having let Sergei Viktorovich through, we moved on.
Approaching the elevator, the gigolo pressed the call button and went up to the third. Only after exiting the elevator did the employee realize that he needed the second floor, not the third. But the elevator has already left.
Having turned from the right wing of the building, where the department of operational and technical measures was located, because of which the entrance to it was blocked by a door with a digital lock, we went along the corridor to the side flight of stairs. At this time, the head of the unit, Colonel Merkulov, came out of the door of the wiretapping department. He was gloomy and worried. The other day, one of his best employees, Major Palamaryuk, died suddenly of a heart attack.
We went down to the second floor. Management was located here, so it was quiet. We passed the offices of Lizogub and his deputies, the head of the information and analytical department and the offices of investigators. Next were the toilets and the elevator, which had been so unsuccessfully used before.
After passing through a small foyer and another interfloor flight of stairs, we approached the counterintelligence offices. The fighter knew where Kharaberyush was sitting, so he knocked and entered, bringing in the detainee.
- Alexander Ivanovich, would you allow me?
“Yes, come in,” muttered Haraberyush, who was sitting at the table.
- Alexander Ivanovich, this is the man whom Azov did not accept.
- Yes, I know, we talked on the phone.
-Well, you freak, got caught?! – with these words, the head of counterintelligence stood up from the table, walked up to the detainee and briefly, without swinging, hit him in the solar plexus. He groaned dully and fell to the floor, where he curled up and began to moan quietly.
- Let’s take this crap and drag it to Illushko’s office. Yatsenko will come there now.
Kharaberyush himself left the building, got into his black Toyota and drove off “to an operational meeting.”
The separatist was dragged into an office nearby. Ten minutes later Yatsenko came in.
– Artem Sergeevich, do you need help?
- Yes, stay late. You'll find it useful at work.
Major Yatsenko, a young officer born in 1980, previously worked in military counterintelligence, had a classic military bearing and a pedantic approach to official activities.
Along with him was an employee from the department for combating organized crime and corruption, Yaroslav Vapelnik. Vapelnik was part of the Ugledar task force and was directly involved with the DPR. The primary information on the basis of which the criminal was detained was from his source; this could have been included in the report as a joint operation, so it was necessary to press on.
Yatsenko, as the “brain” of the event, who generally prefers the intellectual component of the work, tried not to be zealous in torture unnecessarily, so the main burden now fell on Yaroslav.
It was important to understand the information about the activities of one of the leaders of the cell of local supporters of the DPR, Vladislav Kuklin. Yatsenko once again looked through the documents of the operational selection and thought. The most significant of the collected materials were operational and technical materials under code “12” (tapping of mobile phones). During them, events “17” and “Radiy” were also carried out to position subscribers on site (location determination). To do this, they even chased after the nonentity now shaking in front of him a service Opel Astra with a Varan complex of special equipment installed on it. After the Opel broke down, I had to go to the OTO (operations and technical department) and ask for a replacement black Deo Nexia.
The interrogation began. Several biographical questions and then positions about anti-state detail. The interrogated person predictably denies everything.
Yatsenko personally takes the minutes. He hoped to entrust this routine to Alexander Lyashko, who, in addition to operational work, also served as an investigator. However, the senior detective at particularly important facilities of the 1st counterintelligence sector, Lyashko, was now outside the building, and he had to draw up the papers himself. Lyashko’s absence was also unfortunate because during the interrogation, as was regularly the case lately, torture was expected, and Alexander Alexandrovich with his TA-57 military field telephone set simply worked miracles. Sometimes literally a few turns of the handle, sending a current to the necessary parts of the interrogated body, which had previously been watered with water, was enough for a complete and sincere confession.
Well, by myself, by myself. Let's get started.
Artem Sergeevich approached the corner cabinet, in which, by general agreement, the necessary funds were stored. It was necessary to choose tools that corresponded to the object of inquiry. It was impossible to under-deliver or reset the person involved too quickly, since then all the work done would also be reset to zero.
He opened the closet. In a small open safe on the top shelf there were several packages of phenazepam, some of which were already empty. No, that's not it. It was no coincidence that a three-liter jar of medical alcohol was adjacent to a large enema. Yatsenko winced. Experiments with enemas of interrogated medical alcohol disgusted him. He didn't intend to give him anything to drink either. He twirled the shocker in his hands thoughtfully. Perhaps a little later.
On the bottom shelf is a stack of old water torture towels. We'll use it if nothing else helps. I’m just too lazy to drag the freak into the bathroom, and the floors there are always wet afterwards, the employees complain. Dangerous razor blade. For Artyom, it was still amazing how applying a series of incisions on the face, which for men was far from the most convincing argument, had an amazing effect on the psyche of women, forcing them to say literally everything they needed to. But today we have a man. Hemostatic tourniquets will also most likely not be needed.
Once again, looking at the hard worker, he decided that asphyxia would be enough here. Pushing aside several short rubber batons, he took out a thick plastic bag and a garrote (tool for strangulation person. There are two main uses: an instrument of execution and torture and a type of bladed weapon. It is usually made of a strong cord 30-60 cm long with handles attached to its ends.), handed the noose to Vapelnik and threw the bag over the separatist’s head.
*****
Mariupol was given over to extremists for plunder. The Kyiv authorities did not care at all about the local population. They knew perfectly well the mood of the people and sincerely hated them.
The Azov and St. Mary battalions became the real masters of the new Ukrainian capital of Donbass.
The “St. Mary” battalion consisted of only about 100 militants from among the residents of the Donetsk region, and was formed on the basis of the “Shakhtersk” battalion, disbanded in July 2014 for mass looting. In the future, the battalion will be disbanded again, and the no less famous Tornado company will be created on its base. One of the commanders of all these units was the former Donbass crime boss (city of Torez, DPR) Ruslan Onishchenko, known under the nickname “Abelmaz”. Even according to the leaky and rubbery laws, he exceeded all limits in torture, murder, perversion, and looting. He, in turn, was subordinate to another prominent Donbass character named Kropachev, who controlled a number of illegal coal mining sites (“digs”).
The fighters of these nationalist formations terrorized the local population with robberies, murders and outright lawlessness. At the same time, the Mariupol police refused to even accept statements from victims of arbitrariness, not to mention conducting investigations.
Kidnappings of businessmen and rich people flourished in the city with their subsequent (after 2-3 days) release for ransom (ransom amounts reached several million hryvnia), false accusations of wealthy residents of aiding the “separatists” with arrest and subsequent looting of their property (shops) , warehouses, offices, etc.).
Fraudulent actions to extort money from relatives of Ukrainian Armed Forces military personnel who were captured and imposing “protection protection” on the owners of shops and commercial structures were very common.
Along with this, the Azov militants did not recognize anyone except their commanders (often even SBU officers) and did not obey anyone. Bali facts, when they beat up SBU officers. In particular, at the beginning of November 2014, they unreasonably beat up the deputy head of department “K” (fighting organized crime) of the SBU in the Donetsk region, Lieutenant Colonel S. Samoilov, who had many of his ribs broken, and Senior Lieutenant P. Gavshin. But the top leadership has always been on the side of the more zealous fighters against the “pro-Russian separatists.”
*****
In addition to the local SBU officers, all and sundry worked for us. The central office of the SBU in Kyiv, adjacent territorial departments.
Other departments also did not stand aside. The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine made work against the DPR a priority for all regional intelligence units within the 5th Department of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine. They were joined by operational units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Border Service and other more local structures, not to mention activists of numerous nationalist battalions and public organizations with their oligarchic sponsors.
All of them were opposed by the DPR Ministry of State Security. I think it did this successfully. Until my dismissal, the MGB did not have a single failure of valuable agents, employees defecting to the side of the enemy, or critical information leaks. And we knew an order of magnitude more about the enemy than he knew about us. In this sense, we, just getting to our feet, were head and shoulders ahead of the enemy.
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