Raped and tortured by Putin’s soldiers: Ukrainian men and women describe how Russians carried out horrific abuse on victims as young as four
Ukrainian survivors are seeking justice against Russian soldiers they say raped, electrocuted, and forced them to eat dirt in alleged war crimes that have so far gone unpunished.
A new BBC Eye and BBC News Ukraine investigation has identified four men accused of carrying out the systematic torture and rape of civilians in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, where prosecutors say sexual violence has affected victims ranging in age from just four years old to the elderly.
Liudmyla Huseinova is one of these victims. She was detained in Donetsk by pro-Russian forces in 2019 and accused of spying, when in reality she was providing food for soldiers and helping children in an orphanage.
Huseinova was taken to the notorious Izolyatsia prison, where she remained until she was freed in a 2022 prisoner exchange.
Speaking in the film titled ‘Ukraine survivors: Finding my abusers,’ Huseinova described her arrest by a man identified as Yurii Temerbek, a former Ukrainian traffic cop turned pro-Russian collaborator.
She was taken to the prison’s second floor, which was notorious for torture, where Temerbek was joined by a man with a Russian accent called Koval.
The pair mocked her, calling her ‘old’, but said she could still serve as ‘relaxation’ for the military officers who were on their way.
‘[Koval] said I was old, but I had a working mouth because I talk a lot. I remember he put his finger in my mouth,’ Huseinova said. She was then allegedly sexually assaulted by Koval.
Huseinova was taken to the notorious Izolyatsia prison, where she remained until she was freed in a 2022 prisoner exchange
She was taken to the prison’s second floor, which was notorious for torture
Yurii Temerbek (Top Left), Yermak (Top Right), Vadim Shakhmatov (Bottom Left) and Andrey Spivak (Bottom Right) have been accused of rape and torture
The former prisoner also recounted an ordeal involving a guard identified as Yermak that has left her struggling with food to this day.
‘I lost a lot of weight very fast in the first week. Yermak thought I had declared a hunger strike. He came and shouted that for a ***** like me, they would cook separately.’
Huseinova was forced to eat uncooked food mixed with soil and garbage in front of a camera that watched her. She says the taste of the ‘food’ will stay with her forever.
Ruslan Sheiter was also detained in Izolyatsia, where he says he was kept in a basement torture chamber for two months.
Sheiter, who was arrested in Donetsk for passing information to the Ukrainian army, said: ‘The operatives would come to Izolyatsia, take you to the basement, and violently interrogate you.’
One of the items they would use as a torture device was a Soviet-era field telephone device called a ‘Tapik’, which generated electricity.
Sheiter recounted how prisoners were forced to sit or lie on a table with their hands and legs bound while electrodes were attached to their earlobes and genitals.
Interrogators would administer electric shocks whenever they were unhappy with an answer.
Oleksii Sivak, a 42-year-old sailor from Kherson, was detained in 2022 after making banners and leaflets opposing the Russian presence.
In a former police facility, he said he experienced torture and sexual assault. ‘There was torture with objects,’ he said. ‘On the genitals, electric current.’
The brutality of the torture led a fellow prisoner to say that they were being held in a ‘human zoo.’
Investigators found that the Kherson detention centre was run by a man identified as Andrey Spivak, whom detainees nicknamed ‘Angry’.
A former police officer from Omsk, Spivak is said to have imposed a brutal regime, forcing Ukrainian prisoners to sing the Russian national anthem and chant: ‘Glory to Russia’ and ‘Glory to Putin.’
Oleksii Sivak, a 42-year-old sailor from Kherson, was detained in 2022 after making banners and leaflets opposing the Russian presence
Sheiter recounted how prisoners were forced to sit or lie on a table with their hands and legs bound while electrodes were attached to their earlobes and genitals
Irena (pseudonym), was four months pregnant when Russian forces invaded her village
Images on social media show him fishing, hunting and travelling. Photos taken in recent years show him back in Omsk, at Russian interior ministry events.
Irena (pseudonym), was four months pregnant when Russian forces invaded her village.
She was at home with her son and her son’s 17-year-old girlfriend when Russian soldiers began shooting at the fence by her home before breaking in.
‘They broke into the room where my daughter-in-law was,’ she said. ‘I said “don’t touch her, the girl is only 17”.’
‘They stripped us naked. There was harassment. There was harassment in front of my son. It was rape. My daughter-in-law and myself.’
‘Neither my daughter-in-law’s young age nor my pregnancy stopped the Russian men.’
Ukrainian prosecutors later accused two Russian soldiers of rapes in her area. One of them was identified as Vadim Shakhmatov, a sniper in Russia’s so-called ‘peace brigade.’
Irena recognised him immediately as one of her assailants. The 34-year-old man is married and has a daughter.
He lives in south-west Russia and is pictured on social media, enjoying time with friends.
Although the four men identified in the BBC investigation are yet to be brought to justice, one Russian woman who encouraged her soldier husband to rape Ukrainian women was unmasked and prosecuted.
Olga Bukovskaya was tracked down after a leaked audio emerged of her telling her husband Roman: ‘Hey you, rape Ukrainian grannies and don’t tell me, ok? I permit you, but use protection.’
In the spring of 2025, a Ukrainian court sentenced her to five years in absentia.
Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine remain largely beyond the reach of the law, with international organisations denied free access.
One Russian woman who encouraged her soldier husband to rape Ukrainian women was unmasked and prosecuted
Huseinova said that if the men she accuses are never found and imprisoned, ‘then, justice for me will be their names as criminals, and torturers, will be known to their children’
Ukrainian prosecutors have launched cases against dozens of people accused of abusing detainees in Russian-run prisons, though only a handful have been convicted in absentia.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office has documented more than 400 cases of conflict-related sexual violence against civilians.
To date, 85 people have been charged, with 30 receiving prison sentences, most of them in absentia.
According to Anina Sosonska, who leads the general prosecutor’s team working on conflict-related sexual violence, the youngest victim of sexual violence by the Russian military was just four years old, while the oldest was 82.
The survivors say they are determined to help bring those responsible for abusing detainees to justice, believing that exposing their identities is an important step towards accountability.
Huseinova said that if the men she accuses are never found and imprisoned, ‘then, justice for me will be their names as criminals, and torturers, will be known to their children.’
‘For me, justice is not revenge,’ she said. ‘For me, justice is the decree that these people intentionally, deliberately did what they did. I want them to be punished by law.’
