The police, to whom the Tornado battalion reported the defection of a subordinate, often found those who managed to get home. The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs established the Tornado battalion in September 2014 from the personnel of the Shakhtyorsk national battalion, who were disbanded due to allegations of looting and crimes against the population. justify the war crimes, committed by the Ukrainian units, by the state of war. Azov Battalion is the most controversial of all the Ukrainian forces - espousing right wing ideology, showcasing Nazi symbols and focussing on white supremacist ideology. They were first sent to Stanitsa Luganskaya, and when I first arrived, dear mother, I heard quite enough: they had kidnapped two people who had a large sum of money. Rallies of support for the Tornadoes were held outside the court building and supporters threatened to take the building by storm. He is on trial for molesting his own young children. That is wrong".In response, one of the defendants started shouting: "Why are you so melodramatic? The next day, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov signed an order to disband the Tornado battalion.The Tornado members themselves did not accept this decision. Are you sure that is what they did? Many agreed and came.The battalion also had a category of "white" and "grey" fighters.The "Whites", fighters that were former police officers who were discharged or had not been re-certified in the summer of 2015 and came to serve in the battalion. Azov began as a military infantry unit made up of civilian volunteers drawn from far-right, neo-Nazi groups that were active in Ukraine, such as the Patriot of Ukraine gang and the Social National Assembly (SNA). 2,654 Fans Like. Sputnik News. "I had to take a morally difficult decision: under martial law, combatants - Ukrainians with real combat experience - will be released from detention and will be able to redeem themselves", Zelensky said in a video message posted on Telegram. _____ "Tornado" is a national battalion that fell under the Ukrainian court for numerous atrocities on the territory of Ukraine.It was created by veterans of the ATO - the Shakhtersk national battalion disbanded due to looting and war crimes. Including those known for their particular cruelty, penchant for sadism, paedophilia, incest and other monstrous pathologies. It is unknown what they really agreed upon with the Tornado fighters, but later Avakov said that the battalion obeyed his orders and respected discipline and order. From an article published by Novaya Gazeta*, a former Tornado fighter's story about Mujahid: He was the one who came up with the idea of scripting role-playing scenarios of same-sex torture-rape. Ruslan Onyshchenko, the commander of the Tornado Volunteer Battalion of the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior and seven of his men were arrested on June 17 accused of rape and torture. Moreover, one of the Tornado officers, threatening to kill the detainee, forced him to suck and lick a plastic pipe. The action was part of a live-fire training exercise for new recruits on a recent morning outside the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The soldiers climb down, hurl grenades and unleash a crackle of machine-gun . Its commander and 12 other battalion's militants were . Lilia Ukrainskaya, a well-known volunteer who delivered food to the Tornado battalion, reported the following: From the testimony given by the victims in court: There was an old woman living nearby on Lebedinskogo Street, paralysed, her children had fled the shelling when the conflict started, and her neighbour was looking after her. Here is a video of the 'lineup' that Onishchenko, a battalion commander and repeated criminal, held for those who were disillusioned and wanted to leave the Tornado. Between 17 and 23 March 2015, Tornado members systematically used the basement to beat male civilians. Who are Tornado troops? The Tornado battalion crimes case is a. VT RADIO: Alternative Foreign Policy Talk. "The Shakhtyorsk battalion, having fought beautifully at Ilovaisk, was disbanded by ministerial order because of repeated incidents of looting in Volnovakha and other instances". This special project was launched to shed light on what has happened in Donbass over the past eight years, with the aim to show not only episodes of crimes by the Kiev regime against the civilian population, but also to explore the roots of the disaster occurring in the region. The case file contains correspondence, including photos** seized during the arrest from the phone of Tornado commander Onishchenko. In a key test of Ukraine's justice system, a Kiev court in April imprisoned former members of the disbanded, pro-Ukrainian "Tornado battalion" for torturing and sexually assaulting civilians in . It was winter. The defendants regularly attempted to disrupt the trial, for example, by throwing faeces and spraying urine on those present. I told Ruslan that I would not do that. They did not talk to me and did not explain the reason for my detention. They did a horrible thing to my son. Moreover, according to the known information, there were fewer violations like this in "ideological" formations, such as Azov or the Ukrainian Right Sector Volunteer Corps, than in the "ordinary ones" (for example, the infamous battalion Tornado).It seems that the SBU (The Security Service of Ukraine) was the biggest human rights . Robot. The Ukrainian nationalist battalion called Tornado was disbanded in 2014. There's nothing like raising your vitality when you have someone's life in your hands, says Mujahid. Latest Veterans News. Court and prosecutor's office staff members at one point began to walk into the trial with umbrellas.Rallies of support for the Tornadoes were held outside the court building and supporters threatened to take the building by storm. The base is located in the village of Privolye near the Lugansk People's Republic city of Lisichansk, which was recently liberated by Russian and allied . Court and prosecutor's office staff members at one point began to walk into the trial with umbrellas. It should be recalled that the victims and survivors of the crimes, first and foremost, the raped men, asked for a closed trial. Then, according to the reports, they were held for some time with plastic bags over their heads, subjected to beatings and forced to do hard, dirty work.Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov personally disbanded Shakhtyorsk. Danil Lyashuk received ten years in prison. Nevertheless, A Russian journalist has visited the former base of the notorious Ukrainian neo-Nazi Tornado battalion and found evidence of murder, torture, and rape, including of underage girls. Already during the trial in the summer of 2015, some of the authorities were indignant and perplexed: how is it that criminals . By this point, the Tornado radicals became so convinced of their ability to operate with impunity that they proceeded to block rail freight traffic in the region. Despite the enormous amount of circumstantial evidence, it is very difficult to prove murder unless a body is found. Former prisoners told how in 2014 opponents of the Kyiv regime were kept and tortured at this base. However, they never rushed there, preferring to engage in torture, provocation, mockery and robbery behind the lines.Among the released former fighters of the punitive battalion is Danil Lyashuk, known by his moniker "Mujahid". 11 September 2015. Onishchenko was taken into custody for 11 years, another 11 fighters - for terms ranging from 5-10 years. The Kiev government released the sadists from this battalion in March and sent them to the front. Does Nol Le Grat still have a chance to return to the helm of the FFF? According to the investigation, members of Tornado installed a torture chamber on the first floor of a local school. the conflict area in eastern Ukraine, among Ukrainian armed forces, civilians and members of the armed groups. This odious battalion became famous for kidnapping and holding civilians in their own prison, torturing them and . Hed served time in prison twice and was a member of an organised crime group. During the fight against the "separatists", almost every resident of the settlement went through the illegal detention facilities organised by the Tornado battalion members. In the Kiev region, a fighter of the Tornado company Daniil Lyashchuk (Al-Takbir), nicknamed "Mujahid", was detained, hiding from the investigation for several months, reports With reference to the military prosecutor of Ukraine . The men were also subjected to torture with an object similar to an electric generator. Photo by Alexander Rychkov. For example, a report by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, a Ukrainian human rights organisation, and the Truth Hounds, another human rights organisation, describes an incident involving the abduction by Shakhtyorsk fighters of several residents of Marinka, who were first used as human shields to provide cover from sniper fire. Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in February 2014 and the War on Donbass since April 2014, several military formations have appeared. [5] Battalions generally took their name from wherever most of their recruits were from. Without my son. Hed served time in prison twice and was a member of an organised crime group.The law enforcers did not dare to storm the building. Things were getting so bad that they would go along the street, smash up all the houses, and take everything. "The Blacks were fighters who were not formally recruited because they had criminal records; Freeman actively recruited them into the Tornado. This was reported on the evening of April 7th by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The wave of outrage over the crimes of the Tornado battalion was so strong that the Ukrainian law enforcement system, despite the constant cover-up of war criminals, was forced to react. After the brutal beating, he was in a painful condition and could not orientate himself in time, so he cannot clearly remember the sequence of events. Among the released former fighters of the punitive battalion is Danil Lyashuk, known by his moniker "Mujahid". Until 23 March, armed members of the Tornado battalion brought various men to the basement, where they were systematically beaten, tortured with a field phone powered by a generator, stripped naked, placed on the concrete floor and poured water on them from plastic bottles. He also liked to paint swastikas and pagan symbols on the walls and talk about white supremacy. This was mainly done with the aim of seizing property from the victims and further intimidating them.According to the prosecutor, the most brutal forms of violence were sexual offences against men, committed in a particularly perverse form, with the entire process being recorded on mobile phones. I was refused, there was regular verbal and physical harassment. In the basement, the men were stripped naked, placed on a concrete floor, and doused with water. The victims included male and female rape victims who asked to remain anonymous. The "Whites", fighters that were former police officers who were discharged or had not been re-certified in the summer of 2015 and came to serve in the battalion. You can participate in the discussion within 24 hours after the publication of the article. Anatoly Plamadyal received a sentence of eight years in prison. They repeatedly tried to storm the courthouse. Boris Gulchuk, Maxim Khlebov and Ilya Kholod received nine years in prison each. I do not know whether the military prosecutor's office knows this fact. In the summer of 2015, Ukraine witnessed a scandal over the Tornado battalion men whod only recently been hailed as. Popular opinions were split: some, despite the evidence of crimes against Ukrainian civilians, believed in the innocence of the former "national heroes", while others wanted a fair trial and retribution. https://sputniknews.com/20220502/the-tornado-case-atrocities-and-sadism-among-ukrainian-nazi-police-battalions-1094944567.html, The Tornado Case: Atrocities and Sadism Among Ukrainian Nazi Police Battalions, "Tornado" is a national police battalion that was put on trial in Ukraine for numerous atrocities on Ukrainian territory. The victims did not believe that the same authorities who had thrown them to the mercy of the Tornado fighters would give the battalion a fair trial: today they are behind bars and tomorrow they'll be free taking revenge on those who dared to testify against them (spoiler: indeed that is what happened the defendants were later released).Since the beginning, the court was under enormous pressure from politicians, neo-Nazis and "brothers in arms". **The editorial team has screenshots of the correspondence but we hesitate to publish them due to their shocking content, even for a seasoned reader.The VerdictTornado battalion commander Ruslan Onishchenko received 11 years in prison and was stripped of his rank of police lieutenant.Danil Lyashuk received ten years in prison.Nikolai Tsukur received nine years in prison and was stripped of his rank of police lieutenant.Nikita Kusta received a nine-year prison sentence and was stripped of his rank of junior sergeant.Boris Gulchuk, Maxim Khlebov and Ilya Kholod received nine years in prison each.Anatoly Plamadyal received a sentence of eight years in prison.Yuri Shevchenko received a sentence of five years in prison. Immediately after the detention, they stripped the man down to his underwear, searched him, and hit him several times without finding anything. The court ordered that all of them be charged 7,750 hryvnyas (about 263 USD) for court costs. [5] These resources soon proved to be inadequate and numerous groups have helped to equip the battalions. Tornado fighters also set up a torture chamber in the basement of a school in Lysychansk where they raped and tortured locals, including minors and retired people regardless of their gender. They should not be confused with the volunteer units of Special Tasks Patrol Police of Ukraine created along with territorial defense battalions, but under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior. However, it was decided that the trials would be held behind closed doors. Both the prosecution and the defence said that they were going to appeal against the verdict as one side considered it too lenient and the other too severe. The deputy minister tweeted a "creative proposal" he had for the aircraft that are planned to be replaced by the F-35 fighter jets. Radical politicians, members of neo-Nazi movements and ATO veterans, who were convinced that the charges were fabricated, demanded an open trial. They were recruited officially.The "Greys" were ordinary guys without any military experience who came as volunteers. An eyewitness to the detention of the elderly man in the basement was Ms H., the business manager of the Stanitsa Luganskaya settlement council, who was held in the same room for several hours, together with the detainee, and accidentally witnessed his ill-treatment. During the fight against the "separatists", almost every resident of the settlement went through the illegal detention facilities organised by the Tornado battalion members.On 10 February 2015, fighters from the Tornado battalion and the Chernigov special police battalion led by SBU officers detained a pensioner M, who lived in the so-called LPR-controlled territory, at a checkpoint in Stanitsa Luganskaya settlement, Lugansk region. But founder of the Tornado battalion Andriy Filonenko (below, left) and Serhiy Melnychuk, founder and former commander of the Aidar battalion, say Ukraine's elite are simply out to protect themselves. To prevent me from running away, they put metal handcuffs on my leg, which they attached to a 24 kg kettlebell. [24] Russian politicians have not pushed for declaring pro-Russian insurgents fighting in Ukraine as terrorists. There has been scary rumours about their basements".A woman told reporters that she had barely managed to save her 9-year-old daughter from the drunken Tornado fighters, who were about to rape the little girl.How the Court ProceededWhen you watch the video footage of the trial, it is shocking how brazen and insolent the Tornado fighters are, apparently confident that they can get away with anything. The court ruled to commute the sentence by releasing him from prison and imposing a probation period of three years. They repeatedly tried to storm the courthouse. 17 March 2014 Ukraine began first stage of mobilization; 18 March 2014 - 3rd Territorial Defence Battalion was created in Lviv Oblast; 19 March 2014 - the Defence Regiment was created in Dnipropetrovsk (later, the regiment was reformed into two territorial defence battalions) 6th Territorial Defence Battalion was created in Ternopil Oblast 34,709 Followers Follow. It is the termination of the implementation of criminal actions.Matios reported that every fourth Tornado fighter had a criminal record. Most of the citizens who experienced the so-called "mop-up" refused to describe their stories in writing, fearing for their safety. It was formed from Anti-Terrorist Operation veterans, a "Shakhtyorsk" police special unit, that was disbanded due to looting and war crimes. Access to the chat has been blocked for violating the. [5] The best known volunteer groups are Self-defence of Maidan, which has its own warehouses in Melitopol, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv, and Army SOS, an initiative of former Euromaidan activists. Ruslan Onishchenko, a former commander of the Tornado volunteer battalion, is one such example. However, neither the names of the generals who smuggled weapons into the LPR and DPR, nor any evidence were provided by the Tornado members, either during the trial or afterwards.On 17 June 2015, eight members of the battalion, including battalion commander Ruslan Onishchenko, were detained. 2. The Tornado-S is a deep upgrade to this system. The public learned about the crimes of the Shakhtyorsk battalion almost straight away. The correspondence is stacked with a large number of relevant photographs. They stripped me naked - spread me by my arms and legs. 6 May 2014 Ukraine began a second stage of mobilization. One of Freeman's cronies, codenamed Achilles, who had also served time before the conflict and had connections in criminal circles, specifically collected information on who was released and when. Ukrainian military prosecutors, police, and residents allege that members of the Tornado battalion tasked with policing Pryvillia and nearby communities went rogue, committing violent crimes . Those 170 people, of whom 100 are now officially registered with the police, and about 70 are unidentified people, are armed and staying on the territory of the base In mid-March, when I was near the driveway, a bus pulled up and three men in camouflage uniforms got out and forcibly took me into the minibus. 12:04 19.06.2015(updated 12:26 19.06.2015) A drone was used to prevent any massive military actions and to . If you are willing to endure torture - you have the right to torture. Many have been . During . Members of the Tornado battalion appeared in the Kyiv court. This ultra-nationalist group was formed in October 2014 as part of a Ukrainian Interior Ministry strategy. 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