"Bi*сh, you won't make it to the morning." Memories of the occupation: electrocution, broken teeth and ribs

About 8 miles separates the village of Lyptsi in Kharkiv Oblast from the border with Russia. We came to the village on October 4, accompanied by the police. Although the settlement was liberated from the Russian military on September 13, the locals were still not allowed to leave the village. Law enforcement officers still continued filtration and cleaning of the territory.

During the occupation, mostly older people and those who could not leave their village stayed in Lyptsi. This story is about three men whom Russians took from their homes in the morning at the beginning of March, put sacks on their heads, tied them with tape, and took them to interrogations and torture.

Bread!

Where?!

The center of Lyptsi was battered, like most settlements after the de-occupation. There is a fire station where the military detained and interrogated locals; the shelled hospital, which has not received patients for a long time; destroyed shops and piles of garbage, in which a thin local man tries to find something. In the distance is a driving school, which became the militia station and a torture chamber for occupiers. Only the morning sun saves the city, flooding with light every bomb crater and broken glass on the ground.

Tired and confused people wander from place to place, talking to each other. Every day they come here to find out if humanitarian aid will be delivered.

There is despair and sometimes even anger in their eyes: they live without light, communication, food, and money. They do not understand how to face winter in cold houses with leaking ceilings.

“Why aren't they letting us out, tell me? We haven't seen bread for four days! Humanitarian aid is delivered infrequently. They say they will give it at the end of the week. Even our children are not allowed to bring groceries to us. We were liberated, but no one needs us…,” says one of the local women.

During the seven months of occupation, the Russians took many people out of the village. Deputy head of the Derhachi district prosecutor's office, Anton Yevtushenko, says Russians took about half of the village's population which is more than two thousand residents.

Every day, the occupiers drove a bus to the village center, made lists, copied personal information from passports, and sent people to Russia.

However, not everyone who left stayed there; people went to European countries, often to Finland, locals say.

“Did the Russians force you to leave?” I asked one of the women.

“No, no one forced anyone. They just offered us to leave if we wished.”

The closer to lunch, the more people gather in the center. They hold bags with plastic trays or cans for hot food, which will be distributed at 3 p.m.

Everyone tries to speak louder about their own problems: that now only 15 loaves of bread are brought for the whole village, while a month earlier, humanitarian aid was delivered to every street. Some tell how they spent half a year in the cellar and destroyed houses, about how difficult it is now to bury the dead, that there is no way to get a pension and a salary. Someone new is always coming up and trying to figure out who is the last in line for lunch. Suddenly a man from the crowd shouts:

"BREAD!"

Everyone falls silent and instantly turns their eyes to the road.

“Where?!”

And he laughs in response. He was joking.

“It's always been Ukraine here. I served for 5 years not in vain...”

Oleksandr V. (the surname is not disclosed at the character's request, ed.), together with his wife and children, spent the entire occupation in Lyptsi. Maybe they would have left on the morning of the 24th, but by the time they got ready, it was too late.

The village was being shelled, shells were flying through their house, Russian vehicles were driving down the street, and no one was allowed to go towards Kharkiv. Oleksandr also could not leave his elderly grandmother, who replaced him both parents.

Opposite the man's house, the Russians immediately set up their positions. But he did not take it seriously.

“The third day of the war, and I had a flag hanging here at the level of the antenna. “ПТНХ” (abbrev. for "Putin, go fuck yourself", ed.) was written on the gate. The third day of the war, and it was still Ukraine here. It's always been Ukraine here. I served for 5 years not in vain...”

On the morning of March 4, the “LPR” militants arrived at Oleksandr V.'s house on three armored personnel carriers. The man just woke up and got out of bed. They took him outside, put him face down in the snow, and started beating him.

They pointed a gun at Oleksandr's wife, Dasha, took the children to different rooms, and started interrogating them: where and when did their father serve, when was his last mobilization, and when he returned home. Everyone's answers had to match.

“They asked where the weapons were. One of them said it should definitely be buried somewhere in the snow. I was already angry and answered him, ‘Take a shovel and go dig’,” says Dasha.

Of the weapons, only a pneumatic weapon was found in Oleksandr's possession. All his equipment was taken away, including the uniform he served in during the anti-terrorist operation, plate carriers, knee pads, masks, and helmets. Flags were taken down from the house. And the chevrons were taken away as trophies.

“They found my bulletproof vest, which had the coat of arms of Ukraine inside. One threw it with the words: "I will not wear it! Fucking trident!" And the other: "But I can hide it, change it, and wear it." They put everything on themselves at once, including unloaders and carbines. They really liked our uniform. They said it was better than theirs.”

While Oleksandr was lying on the ground, the military took everything out of his house. Dasha ignored it, only listening to the sounds of her husband's beating.

“He was brought back in blood. He was wearing galoshes on his bare feet, the way he had gotten up in the morning. They didn't even let him wear socks, they just put a bag on his head and took him away.”

“Bi*ch, you won't make it to the morning”

First, Oleksandr V. was taken to the fire station in the village center, where the Russian military was based. The man was taken to the office, and the first interrogation was arranged.

“I was beaten. Their colonel asked where my weapon was. Told me to make my last wish, to kneel. He threatened to kill, to shoot.”

Failing to get any information from Oleksandr, on the same day, they took him to the neighboring village of Cherkaski Tyshky, to the enterprise "Slavutych," which once used to make fences.

On March 5, another local from Lyptsi, Oleksandr Teslenko, was taken from his home, and a day later, they took Vitalyii Ilchenko. Both fought in the ATO zone in different years.

“They came to me at 8 a.m. I'm still standing, smoking. I say to my sister, “Make some tea, we have guests.” Three Urals vehicles and one Tigr, and snipers along the perimeter. All were dressed in black uniforms with shields. Probably the Federal Security Service. I was placed in the entrance with my face to the floor, a bag over my head, wrapped with tape, and my hands tied with cable ties. At first, they kept me in the Kharkivoblenergo local production base, and then I was moved to a village 15 km away from Lyptsi and 23 km away from KharkivCherkaski Tyshky,” Vitalii Ilchenko recalls.

He was going to go to the Military Commissariat on February 23, but he was delayed on the way. And when, on the 24th, shelling began in the village and Russian troops moved in, I had to quickly run home, change clothes and hide my uniform and documents.

Oleksandr Teslenko was also preparing to defend his village. On the 24th, at 9 in the morning, he went to the village council with a draft notice, but it was already closed. And then they came for him:

“A car arrived, 8 people with assault rifles, all wearing masks and holding printed lists with names, addresses, and phone numbers. They put a plastic bag on my head, tied my hands, and took me away,” the man says.

In a garage in Cherkaski Tyshky, the Russian military rounded up everyone they considered dangerous: former ATO soldiers, ordinary locals walking down the street with phones, and those they identified as fire adjusters.

In one room, 20 people sat on wooden pallets. Teslenko shows his blackened fingers and toenails. He was frostbitten as the temperature dropped to -15 at night.

Every day, men were taken out one by one for interrogation. The occupiers were interested in the names of the members of the anti-terrorist operation, police officers, and local people who smuggled contraband across the border. They checked whether the men weren't lying and whether the information they were telling matched with what had been already said.

“They asked when I joined ATO, about my positions, the deployment, the department, about the place where I was wounded, and when I was demobilized, whom I know from the ATO. I answered them: ‘They are all here.’ They also asked who was an ardent nationalist. But there are no people like that among us. They didn't beat me much, because I'm on a prosthesis, I got disabled when I fought in 2014,” Vitalii says.

However, the rest got their heels beaten with sticks and bats.

The Russians broke Oleksandr V.'s ribs, and one day they said, “Bi*ch, you won't make it to the morning.”

“They put a grenade in my hand and started torturing me with an electric shock”

Oleksandr V. didn't believe he would survive the torture and see his wife and children.

After five days of interrogation in Cherkaski Tyshky, Oleksandr V. was put in a car with a meat freezer and taken away. Counting the turns on the road, Oleksandr started thinking they had returned to Lyptsi, but the car turned 180 degrees twice.

As it turned out, Oleksandr V., Vitalii Ilchenko, and Oleksandr Teslenko were brought to Hoptivka, to the border checkpoint with Russia. The interrogations and beatings began again.

All that helped the ex-servicemen to hold on were the memories of their families. Vitalii was thinking about his daughter, whose school graduation ceremony was about to take place in a few months. Oleksandr Teslenko was also thinking about his daughter, who, fortunately, managed to leave with her family on the 24th at 5 in the morning, and about his grandchildren, who are growing up as Ukrainians.

Oleksandr V. kept having anxious thoughts about his wife Dasha:

“Everything was so realistic. It felt like in a movie. I thought I was living my last days.

On the first day, I was sure that they wanted to shoot me. Then I began to understand that, perhaps, in six months, we would be exchanged for their prisoners of war. But we were not active military personnel...

I was very worried about my wife because they took me away, but she stayed.”

Oleksandr had fears for a reason. While he was being held at Hoptivka, the Russians broke into his house again and began searching. An empty tube from a rocket-propelled anti-tank grenade was found.

"Then the Federal Security Service officers brought him to Hoptivka and "made" me a grenade launcher. And according to legend, for them, I was a driver who went to serve on mobilization. After that, they put a grenade in my hands and started torturing me with an electric shock. It was like a gun for them," Oleksandr V. says.

The Russians also used electric shock to torture Oleksandr Teslenko, "The electroshock weapon was so big, white. I did not fall the first time, but the second time was a little worse. And then they splashed some water on my back and started again. My leg started shaking."

“We will not detain you today”

In mid-March, the Russians started releasing men. Vitalii Ilchenko and Oleksandr V. were the first, Oleksandr Teslenko was released after them.

“They took us out in the morning and dropped us off near the cemetery. We thought we were going to execute us. We also asked them to smoke. They gave us 7-8 cigarettes and told us not to unpack [they didn't remove the bags from our heads] for 5 minutes. They left, and only then did we realize that they had let us go,” Vitalii says.

“It was March 14. My wife Dasha's birthday. I met her on the way home. She was walking for humanitarian aid. She immediately burst into tears. I am broken, torn, and dirty. And my wife is pure and beautiful,” Oleksandr V. recalls.

The Russians kept haunting the family. Every day at 6-8 in the morning, they came to their house, searched it, and checked whether the man was there. "We will not detain you today," the military said to Oleksandr after another round of searches.

Oleksandr V. no longer had the strength to resist. He was afraid. Broken ribs, and purulent wounds on his legs, for which Oleksandr had no treatment, reminded of themselves. In front of Oleksandr's house, the Russians placed their mortars and directed them towards the yard, where a children's trampoline was behind the fence.

“They intimidated me a lot. I was afraid to leave the yard. An armored personnel carrier drives down the street, and I'm already shaking.”

Due to the tension, Oleksandr and Dasha decided to leave the village. The military broke into the yard as soon as the family put their things in the car. The Russians knocked out his teeth and took away the car.

“And I was taken out again when they had a new rotation. I don't know where exactly. I remember that they turned to the left. Probably it was a village 8 km away from LyptsiHlyboke or a village 15 km away from Lyptsi at the border with RussiaStrileche. I stayed there for three days. I only remember that it was some kind of chic dacha, very big. And in one of the halls, in the room with a fireplace, we were kept with two other men. Sometimes someone was brought up to talk. Then they let him go.”

Soon the story repeated itself: two “Urals”, two armored personnel carriers, and a company of people in black uniforms drove up to the yard to take away exhausted Oleksandr.

“Opposite the yard stood an armored personnel carrier with a pointed machine gun, a sniper was sitting, they entered from the garden, they entered from the neighbors' yards, they sat under the bushes along the perimeter.”

They held Oleksandr for 5 hours with a bag on his head, and his hands tied and then released him. He was standing somewhere under a fence or a wall, at that time, it was impossible to understand where exactly he was brought.

“If we had left with the children then the husband would have been killed for sure”

On September 10, the Russians came to Oleksandr V.'s house for the last time. They searched again for weapons but found only the uniform and his uncle's fishing rods.

“Okay, this time we won't take you away,” Oleksandr heard again.

“And on the 11th, my wife and I go to a local man to sew children's shoes, and I see soldiers with our markings: blue tape, pixel uniform. I started to cry. There was not a single orc on the track.

— I wish you health!

I asked my wife if I hadn't lost my mind.”

Oleksandr could not recover for a long time. After 200 days of occupation, it was hard to believe that the village had been liberated and that the Russians would not enter the house again. He was filled with joy and, at the same time, anger and aggression. If it weren't for his family, he says, he would get back on the infantry fighting vehicle and go to war. And he would shoot in the direction of Russia without thinking, despite his own sister living there.

“They suppressed me psychologically. My sister lives in a city in the Belgorod region, RussiaShebekino, she lived there and then left. I hate her. I want them to have the same grief.”

It seems that Oleksandr and Dasha only now began to realize and live with their own grief. It's difficult for them to stay in the house, which was searched by the Russians every day. The fear that the border is close and the enemies may come again prevails.

“Tell me where it is safe now in Ukraine, where should we go with our children? You know better, we only hear short snippets of news from relatives when we occasionally manage to call them, Dasha asks us. I won't be able to endure it for a second time. It is very worrying for the husband. I'm not sure if it happens again, my husband will be released. I'm afraid that there will be more than with knocked-out teeth and broken ribs...”