Ukrainian Natalia Vlasova said she endured horrific torture and sexual violence at the hands of Putin’s men
(Pictures: Stanislav Aseev/Facebook)
A Ukrainian mum says she was gang rapped by 15 Russian militants before her teeth were filed down to nubs during a horrific torture ordeal.
Natalia Vlasova was captured by Putin’s soldiers in the Donbas region of Ukraine in 2018, four years before Russia invaded the country.
She told a Russian court of her harrowing torture and sexual abuse while on trial for acts of terrorism.
The mum – born in 1981 – also said the men threatened to find her young daughter and kill her.
Despite her testimony and claims that a confession she gave was coerced – the judge sentenced Ms Vlasova to 18 years in jail, reports Human Rights in Ukraine.
Speaking in court, she recalled the various methods inflicted on her, which included being electrified until she screamed loud enough to satisfy the men.
She explained: ‘If I didn’t scream enough, they increased the current and the shocks became even more intense. They needed a reaction. I didn’t understand that straight away, then when I screamed loud enough, I heard their satisfied voices.’
Ms Vlasova described the men as ‘maniacs’ and said one of the ring leaders was Vasyl Yevdokimov, a key figure at Izolyatsia, the infamous Russian torture prison in occupied Donetsk in Ukraine.
Ms Vlasova alongside fellow Ukrainian prisoners Serhiy Hruzynov and Victor Shydlovsky (Picture: khpg.org/en/1608814261)
A torture chamber at Russian prison Izolyatsia (Picture: Donetsky Traktorist)
Among her terrorism charges were plotting to kill Yevdokimov, also known as Lenin.
She said Yevdokimov was the one who ‘filed down [her] teeth with a nail file,. He also inserted a bottle into her body and carried out other sexual violence against her, she added.
Ms Vlasova recalled how her captors forced her to stand all night in the cold in a tiny space with her hands bound and raised above her.
She also spoke of being systematically raped by fifteen men at one time.
At one point the militants said they knew where her five-year-old daughter Yulia went to nursery and threatened to kill the child with a booby-trapped toy.
Human Rights in Ukraine said the judge in Ms Vlasova’s trial, Oleg Aleksandrovich Cherepov, ‘totally ignored’ her horrific account.
The only evidence supporting the terrorism charges was the ‘forced’ confession, which was filmed. She later retracted it.
Ms Vlasova was put on trial in June 2023, alongside two Ukrainian men, Serhiy Hruzynov and Victor Shydlovsky, also accused of terrorism.
Ms Vlasova said one of the lead torturers was Vasyl Yevdokimov, a key figure at Izolyatsia prison (Picture: Zhivko Mironov)
They were all sentenced late last month, Ms Vlasova to 18 years, Mr Shydlovsky to 22 years and Mr Hruzynov to 20 years.
The trial was described as a ‘legal absurdity’ by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
Russian troops have been accused of regularly using sexual violence as a weapon to terrorise Ukrainian communities during the war.
Multiple reports have come out about Putin’s troops allegedly assaulting women, men, the elderly and even children.
Experts from sexual violence charities told Metro.co.uk these rapes are not ‘randomised, individual, opportunistic acts’ but part of a Russian ‘strategy of terror to instil fear’ instead.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.