Russian officer who fled abroad speaks out about torture of Ukrainian military

Former Russian officer Konstantin Yefremov gave an interview to the BBC News Russian service.

According to Yefremov, who gave the interview, he realised he did not want to fight back on the first day of the war and tried to resign from the service. At first he was refused, but as a result he was still dismissed from the service and escaped from Russia.

The military officer was a senior lieutenant and commanded a mine clearing platoon of the 42nd motorized rifle division stationed in Chechnya. In Ukraine he guarded the "rear headquarters" in the settlement of Kamianka in the Zaporizhzhia region and allegedly did not interrogate prisoners. And a certain colonel was engaged in tortures at his unit.

According to the military, this colonel threatened Ukrainian POWs with rape. He severely beat those who did not answer his questions, and during one interrogation he shot a POW in the arm without hitting a bone and broke his right leg with a broken bone.

The same colonel forbade feeding them with normal food and ordered to give them only water and breadcrumbs.