MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. The Ukrainian army runs secret prisons in Kharkov, Kiev, Krivoy Rog and other cities where they carry out "unsupervised violence" to coerce confessions out of prisoners of war and blackmail their family members into committing crimes for Kiev, said Russian Foreign Ministry special envoy for crimes committed by the Kiev regime Rodion Miroshnik.
The diplomat said that since the beginning of the year, four prisoner of war exchanges have been held, bringing 596 Russian soldiers home. Psychologists, investigators, and doctors are still working with the latest, largest group of returned servicemen, he noted.
"In interviews conducted with these military personnel, the overwhelming majority testify to the existence of a whole network of secret prisons located both in the gray zone along the line of contact, and alongside official places of detention of prisoners of war in Kharkov, Kiev, Krivoy Rog and other Ukrainian cities," Miroshnik said.
"Without exaggeration, this network can be described as a territory of unsupervised violence, torture, and forced confessions used both in the interests of the Ukrainian special services, as well as to blackmail families, extort money, and pressure relatives into committing crimes in the interests of the Kiev regime."
The ambassador noted that so far there has been "no effective response from international organizations. Apart from acknowledging that such practices do exist in the areas controlled by the Kiev regime, nothing tangible has been done," he concluded.