“In the Kharkiv Region, a Russian special service officer with the call sign “Mars-1” was informed of a new suspicion. During the occupation of Vovchansk, he tortured local residents in the captured prosecutor’s office, using electric shocks, beatings and even cutting teeth with a file, the Office of the Prosecutor General reports. According to the investigation, during the temporary occupation of Vovchansk, “Mars-1” persecuted Ukrainians, suppressed the resistance movement and systematically tortured civilians. Its”, — write on: ua.news
In the Kharkiv Region, a Russian special service officer with the call sign “Mars-1” was informed of a new suspicion. During the occupation of Vovchansk, he tortured local residents in the captured prosecutor’s office, using electric current, beatings and even cutting teeth with a file, reports .
According to the investigation, during the temporary occupation of Vovchansk, “Mars-1” persecuted Ukrainians, suppressed the resistance movement and systematically tortured civilians. His actions included illegal detention for up to 86 days, systematic beatings and electric shocks.
One of the recorded episodes occurred in May 2022. Russian soldiers forcibly broke into the house of a 51-year-old man and took him to the captured prosecutor’s office. It was “Mars-1” that conducted the interrogation there. He forced the man to call his son, who served in the Armed Forces, and convince him to leave the army. When the son refused, the father was severely beaten and thrown into the basement. Later, he was forcibly brought to his son’s house, searched and released.
“At the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the suspect was sent to the occupied city of Vovchansk, where, according to the instructions of the leadership, he was supposed to suppress the resistance movement and carry out “prevention” against pro-Ukrainian citizens. It was a deliberate policy of the enemy and abuse of our people,” emphasized Spartak Borysenko, head of the department for countering crimes committed in the armed conflict, Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
The suspicion was reported to him for cruel treatment of civilians committed by a group of persons (part 2 of article 28, part 1 of article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Previously, other episodes of his war crimes were already under trial.
The Kharkiv Prosecutor’s Office reminds that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, 28 occupiers have been found guilty, and 19 sentences have been passed. Only on January 13, 2026, Russian prisoner of war Serhii Tuzhilov, involved in the execution of Ukrainian defenders, was sentenced to life imprisonment. “We are carefully establishing all the facts, and crimes against civilians will not go unanswered,” the prosecutor’s office added.
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