Secretly detained by Ukrainian authorities for almost 600 days, Mykola Vakaruk suffered repeated beatings, battled the freezing cold and lost a kidney in an ordeal he described as pure hell. The 34-year-old was released in late July following pressure from rights monitors from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who revealed the existence of "secret … Continue reading Beatings and a lost kidney: life in Ukraine's 'secret prisons'