A Ukrainian volunteer medical worker captured by Russian forces during the siege of the deadly port city of Mariupol gave a horrifying testimony to US lawmakers on Thursday, recounting his experiences of being tortured. tons, death and terror that she had to go through.
Yuliia Paievska, who was detained in Mariupol in March and held for three months by Russian and pro-Russian forces, spoke before the Helsinki Commission, a government body set up to promote human compliance. rights worldwide.
Known by her nickname Taira, Paievska gained global attention after she turned over her body-camera footage to the Associated Press shortly before they left Mariupol.
Her voice choked with emotion, she listed to the committee some of the atrocities she had witnessed in Mariupol, and especially during her captivity:
Relatives and Ukrainian state could not know about the fate of pregnant prisoners
One fighter was beaten for three hours and then thrown into the basement like a sack. And just a day later, he was beaten again.
A child dies in the arms of the mother.
A seven-year-old boy with a bullet wound died in my arms because I couldn't save him under the circumstances.
The prisoners in their cells screamed for weeks and died of torture without any medical help during their incarceration in this hell. The only thing they felt before they died was abuse and brutal beatings.
My friend, whom I stroked his eyes with before he died. Then I stroked another friend's eyes again. And the others, one after the other.
A city of half a million people is dying before my eyes, under air raids, planned, methodical.
The Russians directly launched airstrikes on hospitals and residential areas.
A hospital full of wounded soldiers and civilians, where the anesthetic has run out and the antibiotics are gone.
The soldiers and the entire medical staff slept two or three hours a day because of the consecutive operations.
Medivac ambulances arrive every 5, 10 minutes with the injured and the dead lying on top of each other, and the fate of these people is unfortunate despite the efforts of the doctors and nurses.
The Russians burned cars, burned alive the people screaming in them.
Police officers pulled women and children out of the rubble, whose shapes were no longer recognizable.
People had to drink water from muddy puddles.
The houses were looted.
Dogs used to be pets dragging people's limbs around the city.
The prisoners were forced to take off their clothes by the killer before they were slowly killed.
The torture chamber was specially prepared.
Paievska said a Russian soldier asked her as he tortured her: "Do you know why we're doing this to you?" “Because you can, now is your time,” she replied, and said she wanted to imitate the way Jesus responded to the Governor Pontius Pilate.
Source: ABC News
Tags:
catholic