"All his fingers were broken": Russians tortured former soldier in Kharkiv region to death

After the liberation of the territory of Kharkiv oblast from the occupiers, the police found more than 20 torture chambers in different districts. The Russians paid special attention to the mockery of former military and law enforcement officers. 

In the village of Borova, Kharkiv region, Russians abducted from his own home and tortured a local resident, a former ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation in Eastern Ukraine – ed.) participant Serhiy Avdeev. The Slidstvo.Info journalists talked to his mother and a friend.

“FOUR CHILDREN BECAME ORPHANS”

Serhiy Avdeev was 33 years old. The man had returned from the front line several years ago and was not involved in military affairs.

“He was an ordinary guy. He studied to be a welder. He was cheerful, healthy, cheerful, loved children, loved them very much,” Svitlana Avdeeva, the mother of the murdered man, said through tears.

He used to earn money mostly by doing odd jobs in the village, and during the full-scale war, when there was almost no work, he worked as a milkman at a dairy.

Svitlana Avdeeva, the mother of the killed ex-soldier

“When the war started, the Russians came to him immediately – they talked and that’s all. He did not live with us, but with his wife and children. And the second time the “LPR” (the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic”, a self-proclaimed pseudo-republic in the east of Ukraine, backed by Russia – transl.) came and took him away. And that’s it… they never returned him,” Serhiy’s mother says.

The former soldier was probably held and tortured in the village of Novoplatonivka near Borova on the territory of the recreation center Svitlo Shakhtaria (The light of the miner – transl.). At least his relatives found his body there during the occupation.

“We went to the hospital to look for him, they said – go to the Russians and ask. They said they did not know anything, that you should go and look for him yourself. Then we found him at that blown-up base. We asked them (Russians – ed.) if we could take him, because it might be mined, and they said: “Put more white ribbons on the car and go pick him up yourself,” the mother of the killed says.

The Russian occupiers beat Serhiy to a pulp.

“All his fingers were broken, every single one of them, an expert told us here at the cemetery. He was cut and stabbed all over. And he had a clip of bullets. It’s terrible. Four children were left without a father,” the mother of the tortured man says.

The pit where the body of Serhiy Avdeev was found. Photo: National Police of Ukraine

Svitlana Avdeyeva assumes that her son was handed over by someone from the locals, because they came to look for the former soldier at his place of residence, not at his place of registration.

COLLABORATORS IN BOROVA

There were many people in Borova village who gladly collaborated with the occupiers. During the occupation, the Russians managed to develop a network of “spies” and recruit their own “police”.

Hennadiy is a friend of the tortured soldier

“Mostly alcoholics and drug addicts joined that police. There were ads hanging everywhere that they were recruiting local police. So they came without experience, without anything – and that’s it, he is already a policeman. And there were young people with St. George ribbons,” says Hennadiy, a resident of Borova and a friend of the tortured Serhiy Avdeev.

One of the most active accomplices of the Russians was Vyacheslav Mykhailov – also a local, says Hennadiy. He came to the occupation administration every day and behaved defiantly with the locals.

“Those who wanted to know something, they searched everywhere. Mykhailov officially said that he worked for the FSB. He never left the (occupation – ed.) administration here, he went every day. He could come home at one or two in the morning. He was allowed to. We stayed at home since 18:00, and he could still ride freely,” says Hennadiy.

The Slidstvo.Info journalists identified the collaborator and looked through his social networks. It turned out that he openly supports Russia. Back in October, Mykhailov posted a photo of himself with the tricolor and the inscription “I love Russia” on his Odnoklassniki page. In addition, he regularly reposts from the groups “Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin” and “Ghouls who destroyed Ukraine”.

Mykhailov’s current whereabouts are unknown. Locals assume that he, like other supporters of the “Russian world”, fled the village to Russia.

The video has English subtitles.