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  "path": "/2026/02/14/inside-putins-torture-gulags-new-methods-targeting-deserters-revealed-26895399/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-14T12:15:35.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "News",
    "World",
    "Russia",
    "Russia-Ukraine war",
    "Vladimir Putin",
    "supports HTML5 video",
    "Ukraine",
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  "textContent": "To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video\n\nUp Next\n\nPrevious Page\n\nNext Page\n\nVladimir Putin’s army was filmed torturing their own soldiers to curb desertion from the deadly war, while captured Ukrainians are shipped to gulags known for inhumane treatment.\n\nWith the Russian invasion of Ukraine dragging on for nearly four years now, Putin’s war machine needs to be constantly fed with new soldiers, many of them young conscripts.\n\nAs many sent to the frontline face almost certain death, some attempt to escape to the other side.\n\nNot making it through means a fate almost worse than death in the hands of their own troops.\n\nThe soldier, thought to have been captured after trying to flee, is pictured sobbing and tied up inside a tyre (Picture: east2west news)\n\nChilling footage filmed inside the Russian army has emerged showing horrific details of what happens to those considered traitors, and this is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.\n\nIn the video, a half-naked man, thought to be a Russian soldier, is trapped inside a car tyre in the snow with his hands tied.\n\nThe soldier cries as his commander accuses him of seeking to flee and rants: ‘What, you f*****g b*****, do you want to f*** off? Do you want to f*** off…..?\n\nThe sobbing fighter pleads: ‘Sorry, Commander, I won’t, I’m sorry…..’\n\n## Inside Russian torture gulags for Ukrainians\n\nUkrainian soldiers and civilians captured by Putin’s army will be taken to one of the over 300 detention facilities, which have mushroomed in Russia since the war started.\n\nTorture of detainees is said to be a norm rather than an exception, according to human rights groups.\n\nLocals in Snihurivka, Ukraine, said the basement of a restaurant was used for torture during a Russian occupation (Picture: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)\n\nThose who have managed to leave alive have recalled extensive torture methods inflicted on them regularly, including waterboarding, electric shocks and being used as ‘human furniture’.\n\nViktok Biletskyi, a soldier in the Ukrainian 406th Separate Artillery Brigade, described what happened to his cellmate Danylo: ‘They put a gas mask on Danylo and electrocuted him to make him suffocate faster, but as soon as he started to lose consciousness, they took off the gas mask. They did not let him die: they wanted him to suffer.’\n\nIn an infamous detention facility, SIZO-2 in Taganrog, Ukrainians are reportedly subjected to a method known as ‘call to Putin’ or ‘call to Lenin.’\n\nPlastic ties for torture and a broken chair were found in the basement of an office building in occupied Kherson, where 30 people were held for two months, according to Ukrainian prosecutors (Picture: REUTERS)\n\nIt involves a Soviet-era phone, which is attached to the prisoner’s earlobes, nose or genitals with wires to administer electric shocks.\n\nSites thought to have been used as ad hoc torture facilities have also been uncovered in Ukrainian towns and cities occupied by the Russian army.\n\nIn Snihurivka, Ukraine, locals reported that the basement of a restaurant was used to torture captives.\n\nIn Kherson, prosecutors said 30 people were held in the basement of an office building for two months, where plastic ties for torture were later found.\n\nPutin and his cronies appear to be carrying on business as usual while thousands of people are killed and injured in the protracted invasion of Ukraine (Picture: EPA)\n\nThe Russian war of aggression continues to inflict death and destruction across Ukraine, with regular air strikes leaving people without heat, power and water in the middle of the winter.\n\nThe UN has warned of ‘widespread and systematic’ torture inflicted on Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia.\n\nAround 15,000 Ukrainian civilians are estimated to be detained in Russia since the start of the war, with nearly 2,000 kept at detention centres.\n\nRussia has seen more casualties than in any other conflict before for its army, with almost 1.2 million soldiers wounded, killed and missing since February 2022, according to estimates by US-based think tank CSIS.\n\nBetween 500,000 and 600,000 Ukrainian soldiers are thought to have been killed, wounded and missing.\n\n******Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.******\n\n**For more stories like this,****check our news page**.\n\nComment now Comments  Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source ",
  "title": "Inside Putin’s torture gulags with new methods targeting deserters revealed"
}