Russian soldier sentenced to life in Ukraine’s first war crimes trial
“What would happen if we cut off your ear?” the soldiers asked Oleksandr Vdovychenko. Then they hit him on the head.
The blows kept coming whenever his interrogators — a mix of Russian soldiers and pro-Russian separatists — didn’t like his answers, he later told his family.
The men questioned him about his politics, his future plans, his views on the war. They checked his papers, took his fingerprints and stripped him naked to check if he had any nationalist tattoos or markings caused by wearing or carrying military equipment.
“They were trying to shoot him,” his daughter Maria Vdovychenko told CNN in an interview.
Maria said her father received so many blows to the head during interrogation last month that several medical tests have now confirmed that his eyesight was permanently damaged.
Still, Oleksandre was one of the lucky ones. He did it by “filtration”.
When Russian troops began taking over villages and towns in eastern Ukraine in early March, following their invasion of the country, evidence began to emerge that civilians were being forced to undergo identity checks humiliating and often violent interrogations before being allowed to leave their homes and travel. to areas still under Ukrainian control.
Three months after the start of the war, the dehumanizing process known as filtration has become part of the reality of life under Russian occupation.
CNN spoke with a number of Ukrainians who have gone through the screening process over the past two months. Many are too scared to speak publicly, fearing for the safety of relatives and friends still trying to flee Russian-held areas.
Everyone CNN spoke to described being threatened and humiliated during the process. Many have witnessed or know of people who were arrested by Russian troops or separatist soldiers and then disappeared without a trace.
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