MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky’s power is propped up by "torture chambers" set up across the country to quell dissent, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"There isn’t just one or ten such ‘torture chambers’ in Ukraine - they are all over the country. They are in cities, in the suburbs, at the local territorial recruitment centers, and on the front line. They literally form the backbone of the Zelensky regime. His power rests on these ‘torture chambers,’" she told TASS.
Power "should be based on the will of the people, Ukraine’s citizens, who could have expressed it through electoral processes," she emphasized. "But he [Zelensky] does not give them such an opportunity. He has deprived the people, citizens of his own country, of the right even to express their views on whether they want to see him in power or not. And all he relies on, everything his power rests on is a network of ‘torture chambers’ across the whole of Ukraine."
Torture chamber near Kiev
On Monday, Ukrainian media reported that armed men were holding approximately 40 people in the basement of a single-family house near Kiev. An ambulance was dispatched to the scene after a medic said she had received a video showing several detainees in critical condition, with many displaying injuries consistent with torture. However, those guarding the property refused to let medical personnel inside. Tensions escalated as local residents gathered outside the house. When some attempted to force open the gate, they were met with tear gas. Only after the incident attracted widespread public attention were medics allowed to remove four men bearing signs of beatings, one of whom was in serious condition.
Police later officially confirmed that the property was being used by personnel of the Ukrainian National Guard. National Guard Commander Alexander Pivnenko said the four injured men were soldiers who had deserted. He also acknowledged that mobilized servicemen were also being held there.