Propaganda and torture: Liberated Ukrainians' tales of life under Russian occupation

So much has happened in Ukraine since February 2022, when Russia first invaded Ukraine. Every day we are bombarded with new information about the conflict and the latest developments on the frontlines. And it is easy to forget that many Ukrainian towns were invaded by Russian troops and the Ukrainian citizens were forced to live under their rule.

After Putin initiated his "special military operation," in Ukraine, many Ukrainian villages were forcefully taken over by Russian forces. finally started pulling back. By September 2022, numerous Ukrainian towns that were previously occupied had been freed.

After towns such Verbivka, Balaklia, Shevchenkove, Izium, and Volokhiv Yar were liberated from their Russian occupiers, Ukrainian citizens had the chance to speak to the media and tell their stories. Click on to read the harrowing tales from Ukrainian citizens who lived under Russian occupation.

Verbivka is a rural Ukrainian village located roughly 60 miles south of Kharkiv. The town was liberated on September 8, 2022 as a part of Ukraine's recent counteroffensive against Russia in the eastern part of the country.

Journalist Ashley Westerman of NPR was among the first to speak to residents in the area after their liberation following six months of Russian occupation. One sixty-eight-year-old resident, Volodymyr Lymanskyi, told Westerman that he was "so happy and relieved."

Volodymyr added that it was "wild, living with no electricity, mobile service or pensions." Fellow resident Olga Panchenko told NPR she was thrilled she could finally leave her home and go outside without fear of the Russians.

Nearby in the village of Balaklia, which was the first town to be freed from the Russians on September 8, 2022, the impact of war is evident in the destruction of the community.

A woman whose home was destroyed in the Russian attacks told NPR, "Windows can be replaced...the most important thing is that we survived."

According to town officials, thus far, only five dead Ukrainians have been found since Balaklia's liberation; however, they expect to find more.

Moreover, Serhiy Bolvinov, the Kharkiv region police chief, said that not only are they investigating deaths but also incidents of abuse and torture of Ukrainians by Russian soldiers.

Various media outlets  have reported that the Ukrainian police have found make-shift multiple torture chambers (similar to the one seen here) set up by the Russians in police stations in previously occupied towns.

Mr. Bolvinov told reporters that residents were held in the Balaklia police station by the Russians. When the area was liberated, they found 40 Ukrainians locked up by the Russians without any food or water.

Westerman from NPR was able to speak to one of the prisoners, a thirty-five-year-old man named Vitaly Alferyuk. Vitaly told the reporter that the Russian locked him up because he used to be a Ukrainian soldier and that he was "tortured with batons and electric shocks."

The town of Shevchenkove was also liberated when Ukraine's military launched a surprise counteroffensive.

According to an article by The Guardian, the Ukrainian soldiers were greeted by town residents with hugs and kisses.

Andrii Konashavych, Shevchenkove's acting military administrator, spoke to The Guardian about life under Russian rule. Andrii said that when the town was first occupied, the Russians told them (falsely) that the city of Kharkiv had fallen and that they would forever occupy the town.

Andrii's experience under Russian occupation sounds less intimidating than that of the residents in Balaklia. He told The Guardian that the Russians were relatively low-key after the initial take-over, with only a few young soldiers patrolling the streets.

The residents of Shevchenkove were given aid and supplies from Moscow, along with a propaganda newspaper.

In addition, due to the Russian black-out of phone and internet signals, they could only access the new Russian Kharkiv-Z radio station and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels...in other words, the Russians worked hard to keep residents steeped in Russian propaganda.

The Guardian also spoke to Shevchenkive resident Anatoly Sukhomlyn, a retired 72-year-old train driver. Sukhomlyn said the Russians inspected all residents for patriotic Ukrainian tattoos and examined their flash drives and computers.

Sukhomlyn also added that they did not hesitate to smash down doors if they wanted access to your home and you were not there.

In addition, Anatoly told The Guardian that the FSB, Putin's spy agency, detained multiple residents who were taken to Kupiansk for interrogation and never heard from again.

Pictured: Ukrainian police document war crimes in Shevchenkove.

Izium was the largest community freed by the Ukrainian counteroffensive, with a prewar population of 46,000. The Kyiv Independent spoke to residents of Izium and neighboring towns about their experiences under Russian occupation.

The Ukrainians who spoke to Kyiv Independent said they spent most of the six months of Russian occupation hiding in their homes.

An elderly woman named Liubov Balabolina told the newspaper that she lived off the vegetables she had canned and grown rather than risking leaving her home, saying, "It was preferable to going outside."

Residents of the town of Volokhiv Yar said that the young Russian troops in charge of their hometown were poorly-trained and dangerous.

The Kyiv Independent reported that they were known to loot private property and randomly shoot at the homes and cars of locals.

Resident Daria Panchenko spoke to the Ukrainian newspaper about her experiences under Russian rule, saying, "They just terrorized us more than anything. When a school principal refused to cooperate with them, they lined him up against a wall and sprayed rounds all around him."

Like in other occupied territories, the Russians cut off the residents' access to phone and internet signals. A resident of Iziu told The Kyiv Independent that the Russian radio and newspapers didn't give them much information about what was really going on: "In Kharkov Z they talked non-stop about how everything was great and being rebuilt. We didn't take it seriously for long."

The Kyiv Independent also reported that families in Iziu said that they were offered a sum of 10,000 rubles ($165) as an incentive to send their children to schools using the Russian curriculum; however, the schools never opened.

Although the Ukrainian armed forces liberated large Russian-occupied areas recently, the war is not over. The residents of the occupied regions are slowly trying to recover some sense of normality.

However, that won't truly be achieved until the terror of war is fully behind them and peace returns to Ukraine.