Electric shocks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The teacher says she did not betray her convictions, maintaining a pro-Ukrainian stance both at the time of her arrest and during interrogations. And she considers herself lucky: unlike others, she was subjected to neither physical violence nor electric shocks during her two interrogations, only sometimes threatened with sending her \u201cto Belgorod\u201d (a Russian city across the border to the north of Kharkiv), or putting her \u201camong the deserters\u201d. \u201cThe air in the cell was stifling. No light filtered through the windows, and we weren\u2019t taken out into the open air,\u201d she recalls. \u201cWe were barely fed \u2013 just noodles twice a day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy place was on the floor, between two bunk beds. The toilet was in the same room,\u201d says Fesenko. \u201cTwo people were on the bunk beds, but everyone else was on the floor \u2013 some under the beds, others near the toilet. Industrial water ran from the tap. We used it to wash and to drink.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the prosecutor\u2019s office, the arrests were unfounded and the guards forced prisoners to sing the Russian national anthem, punched and kicked them, and subjected them to electric shocks. \u201cAfter the electric shocks, I had an operation on my hands. But I still haven\u2019t regained full sensation. My hands haven\u2019t fully regained their function,\u201d says one of the victims quoted<\/a> by the Kharkiv regional prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt night, we could constantly hear footsteps in the corridor. They were taking people away. We sat there and could hear someone being tortured,\u201d recalls the teacher. \u201cThe cells were open, and we could hear everything. A young man was beaten until he lost his voice, until he fell completely silent. Can you imagine? And it was like that every night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey made us march down the corridor in handcuffs, in a duck walk \u2013 just to mock us,\u201d a 45-year-old entrepreneur also detained at the centre told<\/a> investigators. Sometimes the guards mocked executions, or forced people to dig graves for themselves and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After her second interrogation, Fesenko lost consciousness. She believes that was when she suffered a mini-stroke. Her unlawful detention continues to affect her life: her chronic conditions have worsened and, this year she was diagnosed with diabetes, which she believes she developed in that centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fesenko remembers the night of her release on September 8, 2022, in minute detail. At that time, the Ukrainian counter-offensive was in full swing. The Ukrainian armed forces liberated Balakliya, Izium, several villages and towns, and then it was the turn of Kupiansk. As the Russians fled, the detainees at the torture centre regained their freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA man managed to get out of his cell. He opened all the cells, and we got out at one o\u2019clock in the morning. When I returned to the village, the wind was literally buffeting me along the road. I didn\u2019t recognise myself anymore. I was completely grey, utterly grey. The women who came to visit me were in tears when they saw my hands,\u201d recalls Fesenko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent years, the security situation in Lisna Stinka has deteriorated. The village, situated near the front line, has been the target of strikes, notably by Russian drones. As a result, the secondary school in Lisna Stinka has ceased operations. The children were transferred to the secondary school in Hlushkiv, in the municipality of Kurylivka, which has been relocated to Kharkiv.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am currently an internally displaced person in Kharkiv. I moved because the pupils from my secondary school were also evacuated here,\u201d says Fesenko. \u201cI\u2019m renting a room. My house in Lisna Stinka was near the secondary school. It was damaged when a bomb struck the school grounds. The secondary school was also destroyed: a three-tonne bomb hit it on the same day. And that wasn\u2019t the only one. All that remains of the school building is rubble. I don\u2019t know what has become of my house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ukrainian intelligence services, in collaboration with the police, have identified 18 people \u2013 Russian military personnel and local residents suspected of collaboration \u2013 who, according to the investigation, organised a criminal group and ran a torture centre from March to September 2022. The names of the suspects were made public<\/a> on December 28, 2025, by the general intelligence directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry. Charges brought under the Ukrainian Criminal Code are as follows: violations of the laws and customs of war, committed jointly by a group of people; and acts of collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAccording to information at our disposal, the war criminals were holding at least 150 people in this detention centre and torture chamber. It is known for certain that two citizens were tortured there. Ten other people are missing,\u201d stated the intelligence directorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n December 2026 will mark one year since the case concerning prisoners released from the Kupiansk detention centre was referred to the Osnovyansky District Court in Kharkiv. According to the indictment, 77 men and 10 women have been recognised as victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis trial is unprecedented, as the case involves 18 defendants, two of whom are actually present [two former Ukrainian law enforcement officers already serving sentences for collaboration], whilst the other 16 are wanted,\u201d says Nikita Daloka, the prosecutor in charge of the case. \u201cThey are represented by 11 defence lawyers, and the case involves 87 victims.\u201d Evidence gathered after liberation of Kupiansk in 2022 forms the basis of the case. At present, the town is inaccessible for investigative purposes. The Russians are not giving up<\/a> on their intention to seize it a second time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, after nearly a year, the proceedings are still in their early stages. So far, it has not even been possible to organise a proper preliminary hearing. This is constantly being postponed, either because the victims are absent or because the defence lawyers fail to appear. Sometimes the defence lawyers do not turn up because they are attending other hearings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe law stipulates that preparatory hearings must be held in the mandatory presence of all participants in the criminal proceedings, except in cases provided for by law,\u201d Daloka points out. \u201cThe Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office and the victims\u2019 representative take steps to inform the parties of the hearing. Furthermore, the court issues summonses, and we inform the victims: if they do not wish to attend the hearing, they may submit a statement requesting that the preliminary hearing be held in their absence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, not all victims have requested that the hearings be held in their absence, and it is impossible to contact some of them. \u201cWe have managed to trace some of the victims; we are still looking for the others,\u201d says Daloka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On November 2, the hearing was postponed once again. Not all the defence lawyers were present, and some of the victims could not be contacted. \u201cIt is true that some of the victims did not give their consent for the case to be heard in their absence. There are not many of them \u2013 about ten at most. But it is also difficult to bring together all the defence lawyers for the accused. They must all be present,\u201d notes Tamila Bespala, the victims\u2019 representative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defendants Sergei Vergeles, 56, and Volodymyr Shabounine, 31 -- both former law enforcement officers -- were already sentenced in 2023 to 13 years<\/a> and 15 years\u2019 imprisonment<\/a> respectively, for collaborating with the aggressor,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt present, they are serving their sentences and are taking part in our hearing, for the time being via videoconference. One of them was serving with the police during the occupation of Kupiansk; the other was a retired employee of the Interior Ministry,\u201d explains Daloka. \u201cWhen the occupiers began setting up their own police force, he was invited back into service, which he accepted, and began collaborating with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the prosecutor, during the occupation, Shabounine voluntarily held the post of \u201cescort service chief in the Internal Affairs Directorate of Kharkiv region Provisional Civil Administration\u201d within an illegally constituted police body, whilst Vergeles became a \u201cpolice trainee\u201d within the same directorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cActing in concert on the orders of unidentified leaders in the armed formations, law enforcement agencies and occupying authorities of the Russian Federation -- driven by a common criminal intent and aware of the socially dangerous nature of their actions, having given prior consent to commission of the crimes -- unlawfully detained civilians during a period not established in the preliminary investigation but between 27 February 2022 and 8 September 2022,\u201d states the indictment. It says they held these prisoners \u201con the premises of the Kupiansk police station, in particular in the cells of the temporary detention centre located at the following address: 14 Kharkivska Street, Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, where these individuals were held in unsanitary conditions that were physically exhausting, with limited rations of food and water, and without medical care\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe victims sustained bodily injuries as a result of being struck with bare hands, kicked, beaten with sticks and other objects, and subjected to electric shocks,\u201d states the prosecution. \u201cWhilst sustaining these injuries, the detainees were forced to provide false information about themselves and their family members. The victims were systematically threatened with death and with the arrest of their relatives and family members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is too early to say whether the two defendants will plead guilty. This will only be addressed during the next stages of the proceedings. The full text of the indictment runs to 170 pages. During the hearing of the cases for which these former law enforcement officers have already been convicted, Vergeles did not admit<\/a> his guilt, whilst Shabounine expressed remorse<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the \u201ctorture centre\u201d case, Shabounine fully admits his guilt, according to his lawyer, Anatoli Souproun. Vergeles\u2019s lawyer Irina Krutko says she will not comment on this matter for the time being without discussing it with her client, but that the cases of defendants already serving sentences should be examined separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe case is very extensive; there are numerous defendants,\u201d she notes. \u201cEven the online court system is struggling to cope with such a large number of participants. If we conclude the preliminary hearing and are given the opportunity to submit motions, I will request that the case [concerning Vergeles] be dealt with in separate proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Kharkiv region, a total 68 people have been charged with acts of ill-treatment and torture committed during the 2022 occupation. \u201cThese include soldiers from the \u2018LNR\u2019 [Luhansk People\u2019s Republic] and \u2018DNR\u2019 [Donetsk People\u2019s Republic], servicemen from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, officers of the Russian National Guard, the national police and the FSB [Russian intelligence services], as well as Ukrainian citizens who collaborated with the occupying authorities,\u201d says Spartak Borisenko, head of the department for fighting crimes committed in armed conflict at the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By September 2026 there were more than 1,500 victims of these acts, according to him. However, these figures are not definitive: some people have left the country, whilst others are missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late August 2026, the Ukrainian civil society human rights organisation Truth Hounds, in partnership with the US-based NGO Project Expedite Justice (PEJ), presented<\/a> the findings of a joint report entitled \u201cOrganised Violence: the Russian network of illegal detentions and torture in the Kharkiv region\u201d, which is based on the testimonies of 114 victims of Russian crimes and witnesses. The researchers identified 29 Russian torture centres in the Kharkiv region, all of which shared the same structure and employed the same methods of interrogation and torture, which, they argue, proves the systematic nature of these crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlthough these torture centres were located in different parts of the Kharkiv region, with the distance between some of them reaching 150 kilometres, they shared common characteristics, which could indicate that they were part of an organised system,\u201d said Ashot Agayan, a representative of the PEJ, during presentation of the report<\/a>. \u201cWe have identified the following common characteristics: organisational (choice of buildings, transport of detainees between torture centres); functional (the division of roles between main and transit torture centres); in terms of personnel (division of responsibilities amongst the occupying forces); and methods of torture (beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four years after her detention in the Kupiansk \u201ctorture centre\u201d, Fesenko regrets that her former secondary school had to close. But despite the ill treatment she endured during the occupation, loss of her home and job, and the betrayal of her colleagues, she has not given up on her passion: she teaches English online to beginners in schools in the Pecheniz and Valkiv municipalities. She also continues to expose Russian crimes to the world. In 2023, she received the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine in the \u201cResilience\u201d category. And in 2025, she received<\/a> the Anna Lindh Prize, awarded by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. \u201cI believe those who committed atrocities or collaborated with the Russians should be punished,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd not just lightly for show.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an edited version of a longer article published on Mediaport.<\/a> This article was made through a grant by Fondation Hirondelle \/ Justice Info.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n![\"Larisa](\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ukraine_Larisa-Fesenko_@Kharkiv-Human-Rights-Group.jpg\")
Screams every night<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI had gone completely grey\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cTorture centre\u201d case brought before the courts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Absent victims and lawyers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Two Ukrainian defendants already in prison<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOrganised violence\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Justice](\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ukraine_Ihor-Huryakov-trial_@Media-Initiative-for-Human-Rights-540x360.jpg\")
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