They barricaded themselves in their base (the school premises), booby-trapped the approaches and said they were ready to use weapons in the event of an assault.The then Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoliy Matios commented situation:If this situation is not resolved today or tomorrow, it will be what it should be under the law. Lilia Ukrainskaya, a well-known volunteer who delivered food to the Tornado battalion, reported the following: From the testimony given by the victims in court: There was an old woman living nearby on Lebedinskogo Street, paralysed, her children had fled the shelling when the conflict started, and her neighbour was looking after her. An eyewitness to the detention of the elderly man in the basement was Ms H., the business manager of the Stanitsa Luganskaya settlement council, who was held in the same room for several hours, together with the detainee, and accidentally witnessed his ill-treatment. Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siardhttp://stalkerzone.org/victim-testimonies-against-ukrainian-tornado-battalion-eng-subs/Original video from: ht. Moreover, one of the Tornado officers, threatening to kill the detainee, forced him to suck and lick a plastic pipe. On 10 February 2015, fighters from the Tornado battalion and the Chernigov special police battalion led by SBU officers detained a pensioner M, who lived in the so-called LPR-controlled territory, at a checkpoint in Stanitsa Luganskaya settlement, Lugansk region. Tornado fighters also set up a torture chamber in the basement of a school in Lysychansk where they raped and tortured locals, including minors and retired people regardless of their gender. were mentioned, indicating that the TDF has likely expanded far past the initially planned size. Since the beginning, the court was under enormous pressure from politicians, neo-Nazis and "brothers in arms". Since 30 April 2014, all territorial defence battalions have been part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and fall under the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the governors of the oblasts (provinces) in which they were created. However, neither the names of the generals who smuggled weapons into the LPR and DPR, nor any evidence were provided by the Tornado members, either during the trial or afterwards. After the beating, they dragged the man to the pit as he fainted several times. Tens of thousands of people in Europe marched to protest against the Wests military aid to Ukraine. In other words, the regional authorities asked Kiev to disarm those who were sent to protect civilians. But there was an unusual element to the event. They tied him to a support (a sports tool), beat him with their hands and feet and with a plastic rod, poured water on him and tortured him with electric shocks, made him dance naked and sing songs to them, do push-ups off the floor and squat with a 24 kg yellow kettlebell. 22nd Territorial Defence Battalion "Kharkiv", General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 24th Territorial Defence Battalion "Aidar", 34th Territorial Defence Battalion "Batkivshchyna", 40th Territorial Defence Battalion "Kryvbas", 1st Independent Motorized Infantry Battalion, 2nd Independent Motorized Infantry Battalion, "Undeclared War: Putin's Covert Invasion of Eastern Ukraine", "Ukraine crisis: Why the U.S. isn't tougher on Russia", ">Territorial Defense Battalions (BTrO / BTD)", "Ukraine's volunteer battalions: The new model army", , , , , . According to the former MP Ihor Mosiychuk, Mujahid, who received a ten-year sentence, was released back in the summer of 2021. For instance, members of "tornado" battalion accused of kidnappings, tor-ture and rape, denied their responsibility, claiming that they had kept in the places of detention ("in basements") only the "separatists"3. note Sputnik). A woman told reporters that she had barely managed to save her 9-year-old daughter from the drunken Tornado fighters, who were about to rape the little girl. The Ukrainian nationalist battalion called Tornado was disbanded in 2014. 2,654 Fans Like. Popular opinions were split: some, despite the evidence of crimes against Ukrainian civilians, believed in the innocence of the former "national heroes", while others wanted a fair trial and retribution. A high-profile criminal case against members of the Tornado battalion is known from the reported cases of sexual violence against men. Many agreed and came. The "Whites", fighters that were former police officers who were discharged or had not been re-certified in the summer of 2015 and came to serve in the battalion. Earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested Tornado commander Ruslan Onischenko and seven other fighters from the battalion and charged them of conducting violent crimes in Lugansk Region. If you are ready to die, you have the right to kill. Things were getting so bad that they would go along the street, smash up all the houses, and take everything. For example, a report by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, a Ukrainian human rights organisation, and the Truth Hounds, another human rights organisation, describes an incident involving the abduction by Shakhtyorsk fighters of several residents of Marinka, who were first used as human shields to provide cover from sniper fire. In February 2022, prisoners with military experience who were ready to take part in combat activity, under martial law, started to be released from their places of detention, a prosecutor's office official, Andriy Sinyuk, told reporters. "Tornado" is a national police battalion that was put on trial in Ukraine for numerous atrocities on Ukrainian territory. By August 2014 over 5,600 volunteers had joined defence battalions across Ukraine and about 7,000 volunteers had joined by the end of September.[22][23]. How could someone recruit a gang into a battalion? less than five months after seizing power - the new Ukrainian authorities started infringing on people's rights to express their . Perhaps what was most surprising is who called them that: the country's chief military prosecutor and minister of internal affairs.Material presented by the Ukrainian media, prosecutors and human rights activists show that Tornado fighters robbed, tortured, and raped men and women and killed Ukrainian civilians. The officers in question consumed marijuana about six or seven times in our presence by consuming it through a makeshift water bong.The Protocol II:The Protocol III:The Protocol IV:The Kharkov Human Rights Protection Group ReportMost of the citizens who experienced the so-called "mop-up" refused to describe their stories in writing, fearing for their safety. However, neither the names of the generals who smuggled weapons into the LPR and DPR, nor any evidence were provided by the Tornado members, either during the trial or afterwards.On 17 June 2015, eight members of the battalion, including battalion commander Ruslan Onishchenko, were detained. He was constantly on the phone, calling up those retired out of jail and persuading them to come to the battalion. In March, RT correspondent Maria Finoshina visited the abandoned base of the Ukrainian nationalist Aidar battalion and talked with former prisoners of the nationalists. **The editorial team has screenshots of the correspondence but we hesitate to publish them due to their shocking content, even for a seasoned reader.The VerdictTornado battalion commander Ruslan Onishchenko received 11 years in prison and was stripped of his rank of police lieutenant.Danil Lyashuk received ten years in prison.Nikolai Tsukur received nine years in prison and was stripped of his rank of police lieutenant.Nikita Kusta received a nine-year prison sentence and was stripped of his rank of junior sergeant.Boris Gulchuk, Maxim Khlebov and Ilya Kholod received nine years in prison each.Anatoly Plamadyal received a sentence of eight years in prison.Yuri Shevchenko received a sentence of five years in prison. And with Russian forces significantly tightening their siege of key Ukrainian cities in recent days, including concentrating about 21-22 battalion tactical groups around the capital Kyiv, it is . In addition, he was in the basement in darkness and could not observe the change of day and night. Nikolai Tsukur received nine years in prison and was stripped of his rank of police lieutenant. Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios said Commander of the battalion Onishchenko - has five previous convictions -created a criminal gang in the town of Privolye and incited his officers to grave crimes. The Russian Communist Party pushed to label the battalions as terrorist organizations, even though they are directly subordinate to the Government of Ukraine and are legal government agencies of Ukraine. You can call it a disarmament operation. justify the war crimes, committed by the Ukrainian units, by the state of war. Units. "I have a creative proposal to our German friends. ( ) . Onishchenko was taken into custody for 11 years, another 11 fighters - for terms ranging from 5-10 . This was in 2016. It is the termination of the implementation of criminal actions.Matios reported that every fourth Tornado fighter had a criminal record. By Interfax-Ukraine. They should not be confused with the volunteer units of Special Tasks Patrol Police of Ukraine created along with territorial defense battalions, but under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior. This was mainly done with the aim of seizing property from the victims and further intimidating them. Since February, videos have been appearing on social networks in which Lyashuk with a weapon in his hands says that he is fighting as a member of the Ukrainian Army.This perverted sadist, Mujahid, is currently at the front. The Ukrainians and the Azov regiment have been doing an excellent job of 'de-nazifying' Ukraine. Was Turkey's Earthquake Really Caused by a 'Super Space Weapon'? Among other things, three of the defendants were charged with committing crimes under Part 3 of Article 153 of the Criminal Code (sexual indulgence in perverse forms committed repeatedly or by a group of persons). According to the investigation, members of Tornado installed a torture chamber on the first floor of a local school. There are reports that the former Tornado members have seized APCs and additional weapons from the Ukrainian Armed Forces and have started doing their usual business.The Tornado criminals are in no hurry to go to the front line. If we refused to work, they threatened to shoot us. One of Freeman's cronies, codenamed Achilles, who had also served time before the conflict and had connections in criminal circles, specifically collected information on who was released and when. They were personally loyal to the commander and ready to carry out any assignment. Then Ruslan Onishchenko told us to rape him. Freeman found all this amusing. The Tornado unit was formed in October 2014 as part of Ukrainian Interior Ministry. [5] The best known volunteer groups are Self-defence of Maidan, which has its own warehouses in Melitopol, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv, and Army SOS, an initiative of former Euromaidan activists. [5] Battalions generally took their name from wherever most of their recruits were from. If you joined the battalion, it was virtually impossible to leave. The victims did not believe that the same authorities who had thrown them to the mercy of the Tornado fighters would give the battalion a fair trial: today they are behind bars and tomorrow they'll be free taking revenge on those who dared to testify against them (spoiler: indeed that is what happened the defendants were later released).Since the beginning, the court was under enormous pressure from politicians, neo-Nazis and "brothers in arms". Despite the enormous amount of circumstantial evidence, it is very difficult to prove murder unless a body is found. Here is how he commented on his actions on Ukrainian television:In other words, he knew of at least some of the crimes, and even then, in 2014, the obvious criminals were deliberately not put on trial and were never punished, but simply assigned to other "volunteer battalions" (ed. "A dozen fighters stole a young girl and raped her for 10 days until the child died. According to witnesses and leaks, Onishchenko, together with his team and other criminals involved, has formed a new battalion stationed near Kiev. This includes 9,371 people killed and 21,532 injured 4. Moreover, survivors and witnesses of torture were simply afraid to testify against their torturers. This special project was launched to shed light on what has happened in Donbass over the past eight years, with the aim to show not only episodes of crimes by the Kiev regime against the civilian population, but also to explore the roots of the disaster occurring in the region. The Tornado members themselves did not accept this decision. In the Kiev region, a fighter of the Tornado company Daniil Lyashchuk (Al-Takbir), nicknamed "Mujahid", was detained, hiding from the investigation for several months, reports With reference to the military prosecutor of Ukraine . The Tornado battalion itself was born out of the remains of the fascist Shakhtarsk battalion, which was disbanded after its members were accused of human . During . It shows his communication with Ukrainian volunteer Volodymyr Savanchuk and his wife Svetlana. Eventually, several months later, in mid-June 2015, Hennadiy Moskal, the head of the Kiev-controlled administration of Lugansk, demanded that the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies disarm the Tornado battalion and remove it from Lugansk region. The defendants regularly attempted to disrupt the trial, for example, by throwing faeces and spraying urine on those present. [5] These resources soon proved to be inadequate and numerous groups have helped to equip the battalions. Reduction of five years in prison with the 'yes is yes' law for the man who raped and killed an 83-year-old woman, Pushilin: Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to counterattack in the Ugledar direction, Belgian Finance Ministry: Brussels freezes Russian assets worth 58 billion. Much of the correspondence, which has been going on for months, is devoted to discussing sexual orgies involving Onishchenko and Savanchuk's wives, and often the Savanchukes' children boys aged four and nine. Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in February 2014 and the War on Donbass since April 2014, several military formations have appeared. On one day, another detainee and I were forced, under threat of murder, to rape a third detainee who was stripped naked and tied to a support. Many have been . Azov Battalion is the most controversial of all the Ukrainian forces - espousing right wing ideology, showcasing Nazi symbols and focussing on white supremacist ideology. At about 0430 on the morning of 11 July, a column of battalions from the Ukrainian 24th and 72nd Mechanized Brigades and 79th Airmobile Brigade was struck with an intense artillery barrage near Zelenopillya. Former military personnel among convicts and detainees who have expressed the desire to defend Ukraine in its effort to fight off the Russian aggression are being released from prisons and detention facilities. Source: this information was confirmed by Prosecutor Andriy Syniuk from the . In turn, the men accused the Luhansk Oblast police chief Anatoly Naumenko (an authority in the Kiev controlled part of Luhansk) of running a protection racket for smuggling cast iron from rebel occupied territory . Then they (Tornado members) used bare current-carrying wires to touch various parts of the prisoners bodies, such as the temples, the penis and the scrotum. . Afterwards, by rotating the metal handle of the telephone, bare wires were pressed against various parts of the body. Here is how he commented on his actions on Ukrainian television: In other words, he knew of at least some of the crimes, and even then, in 2014, the obvious criminals were deliberately not put on trial and were never punished, but simply assigned to other "volunteer battalions" (ed. This is what Moskal said on 112 Ukraine TV at the time:By this point, the Tornado radicals became so convinced of their ability to operate with impunity that they proceeded to block rail freight traffic in the region. 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