'This is hell on earth': Ukrainian soldiers said they were castrated in Russian captivity

A Ukrainian psychologist described the horrors that her patients, two Ukrainian soldiers castrated in Russian captivity, had to go through, reports Insider.

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Two Ukrainian soldiers who were in Russian captivity were sent to 41-year-old psychologist Anzhelika Yatsenko after they were released as part of a prisoner exchange.

The men could not tell her for a month what had happened, but they told her: "If there is a hell somewhere, then it is even worse."

The soldiers had difficulty telling their psychologist, who specializes in young people's problems, what had happened to them. When Yatsenko, who works in Poltava, finally learned that the soldiers had been castrated, she said it was so terrible that she struggled to act professionally and hold back her tears.

“I knew from previous cases that they were probably tortured,” Yatsenko said. “As someone who sees the most severe cases, mostly men under 35, it’s very hard to surprise me.”

But when fighters aged 25 and 28 told her about their experience, it was "the first time I acted like a non-professional psychologist."

On the subject: Germany and Britain said that Ukraine has the right to bomb Moscow during a defensive war

“I have never heard anything so terrible. I told them I needed to go, I went to the bathroom and cried and cried. I didn't want them to see because they might think there was no hope," she said.

What happened to the young soldiers

Two soldiers were severely beaten. Drunken Russians castrated them with a knife while they were in prison - at that time they thought they might die. One of the victims said he did not know how they were still alive, because there was "so much blood." Upon their return, they were suicidal.

The eldest of the two men returned to serve in the Ukrainian army, reports Dailymail.

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Torture causes not only physical damage, as Yatsenko says, but also a painful psychological effect, which consists in the inability to have a sexual life.

“For a young man, this is the worst thing that can happen. Their dignity has suffered so much that it is impossible to forget. The Russians told them: "We are doing this so that you cannot have children." For me, this is genocide, ”the psychologist emphasizes.

The experience of prisoners of war being tortured is an often downplayed aspect of the brutality of war. While sexual violence against women and girls is widely reported in the context of war, sexual violence against men is less documented.

On both sides of the conflict, prisoners of war have faced cruel and inhumane conditions - some of which may amount to war crimes, as the UN recently found.

The story of the treatment of these soldiers takes place at a time when a Ukrainian counter-offensive is underway and Ukrainian forces are trying to break through and liberate Russian-held territory.

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Ukraine faces a “very difficult battle,” a US military official recently said. “This is a very tough battle. And, most likely, it will take a significant amount of time and require large expenses,” he said.

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