The key facts

  • Deputy Artem Dmitruk called torture chambers a «systemic and mass phenomenon» across Ukraine
  • He published a video of the basement premises of a TRC point in Dnipro
  • The scandal began on November 2 after reports about a facility in Kyiv region

The deputy's statement and the published video

Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmitruk, who left Ukraine in 2024, stated in his Telegram channel that hundreds of torture chambers similar to the one previously discovered in Kyiv region are operating across the country. «There are hundreds of torture chambers across the country. There is no way to hide this. <...> This is an absolutely systemic and mass phenomenon throughout the country,» the parliamentarian wrote, as his words are quoted by Gazeta.Ru.

Video from Dnipro

Dmitruk also published a video of one of the distribution points of the territorial recruitment centers (TRCs, the equivalent of military enlistment offices) in Dnipro. According to the deputy, the footage shows a dark basement with unsanitary conditions; it is in premises like these, he claims, that abducted people are held and tortured. These claims belong to the deputy himself and are not accompanied by independent verification in the publication.

Context of the scandal

The scandal around the torture house near Kyiv erupted on November 2, when Ukrainian media and social networks began spreading information about a «closed military facility» where forcibly mobilized Ukrainians and deserters from the Armed Forces of Ukraine were allegedly being held and tortured. Ukrainian authorities officially called the facility discovered in the village of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka in Kyiv region a «military facility,» SHOT reported — details are laid out in Gazeta.Ru's article. It was also previously reported that Ukrainian servicemen are being transferred to Kharkiv to guard unofficial prisons.