Donetsk, Oct 13 – DAN The deminer captured near Shirokino in southern Donetsk People’s Republic has been severely beaten up by Ukraine’s Security Service personnel and is now in serious condition in a Mariupol hospital, DPR human rights commissioner Darya Morozova told reporters on Thursday.
“The person who contacted the commissioner’s office has informed our personnel that Ruslan Andriyevsky (with the call sign “Rusya”) has been rushed to the IT ward of a Mariupol hospital in serious condition,” the Commissioner said in a statement.
“The source added that that the deminers who had been detained illegally were taken to the Mariupol department of Ukraine’s Security Service the day before yesterday,” Morozova said. “They stayed there overnight; Ruslan Andriyevsky was taken to hospital, and the other deminers were driven to remand prison.
The human rights commissioner said Andriyevsky had suffered a ruptured spleen as a result of severe beating and had two ribs broken.
“I asked the head of the office of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Donetsk to take proper action over the torture of illegally detained citizens. Hopefully, UN representatives will promptly react to my request,” she said.
On June 27, Ukrainian artillery opened fire on the outskirts of the village of Shirokino where a mine-clearing operation, coordinated with the OSCE, was in progress.
Two people were killed and eight others suffered concussion. The survivors were later captured by fighters of Ukrainian national battalions.