MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. Militants of Ukrainian territorial defense formations are torturing Slavyansk residents for their pro-Russian views and threatening them with physical abuse of their relatives, Chief of Russia’s National Defense Control Center, Head of the Inter-Agency Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response in Ukraine Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said on Monday.

Militants of Ukrainian territorial defense formations are carrying out punitive raids in the town of Slavyansk in Donbass to check local residents for any "signs of pro-Russian views," he said.

"The histories of calls with Russian numbers, SMS messages and messenger correspondence condemning the current regime detected in phones, subscriptions in social media for Russian channels and others serve as a cause for detention. The detained people are taken to undisclosed locations where they are cruelly tortured, threatened with their handover to the Ukrainian Security Service and also with physical abuse of their relatives (killings, collective rape of their wives and daughters) and compelled to equip strongholds and checkpoints," Mizintsev said.

The Ukrainian militants are extorting from $500 to $1,000 from residents to relieve them of tortures. Tens of detained citizens have not returned home and their fate is unknown, the Russian general said.