Torture chambers in Kherson are linked to Kremlin money
At least 20 torture centers in the liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson have financial links to the Kremlin, according to international investigators helping Ukraine investigate suspected Russian war crimes.
Kherson, the first major Ukrainian city to fall early in Moscow’s invasion, was liberated by Ukraine forces in November. Wayne Jordash, an international human rights lawyer and managing partner of the law firm Global Rights Compliance, told CNBC that more than 1,000 Ukrainians gave first-hand accounts of time in the torture centers. Electric shock torture and waterboarding were common, Jordash said.
“A paper trail has been exposed that shows that the main torture chambers in Kherson and those administering them (get) the financial support of the Russian state,” he said. The Kremlin has routinely denied such claims.
Developments:
⬤ Ukraine does not plan to limit wheat exports for the upcoming season because of a larger winter harvest than expected, agriculture officials told Reuters. Ukraine was the world’s fifth-largest wheat exporter before the war.
⬤ EU nations were discussing plans to set up a joint procurement scheme to speed up the delivery of howitzer artillery rounds Ukraine says are crucial to countering Russian forces.
⬤ German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called on China to refrain from sending weapons to Russia and instead use its influence to press Moscow for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Ukraine denies civilian attacks
A Ukrainian official dismissed as “classic provocation” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that about 50 Ukraine terrorists attacked villages in the Bryansk region of western Russia. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo
Podolyak said in a tweet that Russia “wants to scare its people to justify the attack on another country.” Andriy Yusov, the spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, blamed the attacks on an internal confrontation between Russian citizens.
Putin accused Ukrainians of “another terrorist act,” saying they entered the region and opened fire on civilians. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said measures were being taken to “destroy” the attackers.