Scale of alleged torture, detentions by Russian forces in Kherson emerges

FILE PHOTO: Graves of people who died during a Russian occupation are seen at the city’s cemetery after Russia's retreat Kherson, Ukraine November 17, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) - Oksana Minenko, a 44-year-old accountant who lives in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, said she was repeatedly detained and tortured by occupying Russian forces.

Her husband, a Ukrainian soldier, died defending Kherson’s Antonivskyi bridge on the first day of full-scale war, she said. During several interrogations in the spring, Russian forces submerged her hands in boiling water, pulled out her fingernails and beat her in the face with rifle butts so badly she needed plastic surgery, according to Minenko.