When 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. If they got killed, the Tornado had nothing to do with it they were not officially listed, just like the Blacks.If you joined the battalion, it was virtually impossible to leave. The Ukrainian president's decision to platform the far-right military force backfired dramatically in a country where memories of Golden Dawn are still fresh and the public are questioning the motives of those involved in geopolitical power play, says KEVIN OVENDEN. [25][26], On 10 November 2014 Stepan Poltorak, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, ordered territorial defence battalions to reorganize as motorized infantry battalions.[27][28]. 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. After two years, the situation in the east of Ukraine remains volatile and may develop into a 'frozen conflict', creating a protracted environment of insecurity In 2022 the Territorial Defense Forces were created as a successor of the old territorial defense battalions. This perverted sadist, Mujahid, is currently at the front. Ukrainian Minister of Interior Avakov visits patrol police training center in Lvov. 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 . 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). The police, to whom the Tornado battalion reported the defection of a subordinate, often found those who managed to get home. 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. The court hearings were held behind closed doors, without public access.In one case of criminal activity, Tornado commander Ruslan Onishchenko forced his ward's girlfriend to masturbate him.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. Onishchenko was taken into custody for 11 years, another 11 fighters - for terms ranging from 5-10 years. Azov Battalion is the most controversial of all the Ukrainian forces - espousing right wing ideology, showcasing Nazi symbols and focussing on white supremacist ideology. Moreover, survivors and witnesses of torture were simply afraid to testify against their torturers. 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). . The Tornado battalion itself was born out of the remains of the fascist Shakhtarsk battalion, which was disbanded after its members were accused of human . This includes 9,371 people killed and 21,532 injured 4. 2,654 Fans Like. After a while, a man, holding a grey plastic pipe, came in and started hitting the detainees present on their buttocks and thighs. Are you sure that is what they did? The eyewitness revealed this during the closed court sessions on August 2, 2016. . The case file contains correspondence, including photos** seized during the arrest from the phone of Tornado commander Onishchenko. Both agreed that a public trial was needed. According to the former MP Ihor Mosiychuk, Mujahid, who received a ten-year sentence, was released back in the summer of 2021. Units. 2. It is reported by "Strana.ua" with reference to the ex-People's Deputy of Ukraine Igor Mosiychuk. Ukrainian officials say one video shows a re-enactment of how members of Tornado forced two captives to rape another man; they also say some 40 members of the battalion have criminal records. Eventually, several months later, in mid-June 2015, Hennadiy Moskal, the head of the Kiev-controlled administration of Lugansk, demanded that the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies disarm the Tornado battalion and remove it from Lugansk region. The attack lasted only three minutes or so, but imagery posted online of the alleged aftermath reported a scene of devastation and scores . It was not until 20 February 2015 that the detainee was transferred, as specified in the investigating judge's ruling, to his lawful place of detention - the Starobelsk pre-trial detention facilities where upon admission he was found to have sustained injuries inflicted on the day of his detention, on 10 February 2015, and marks which remained 10 days after his detention.A high-profile criminal case against members of the Tornado battalion is known from the reported cases of sexual violence against men. A veteran of the Ukrainian national guard's Azov Battalion conducts military exercises for civilians in Kyiv, Ukraine on January 30, 2022 [File: Gleb Garanich/Reuters] Published On 1 Mar 2022 1 . Much of the correspondence, which has been going on for months, is devoted to discussing sexual orgies involving Onishchenko and Savanchuk's wives, and often the Savanchukes' children boys aged four and nine. After the beating, they dragged the man to the pit as he fainted several times. They put me in the basement An hour or two passed Onishchenko arrived and was glad they had brought me. The public learned about the crimes of the Shakhtyorsk battalion almost straight away. Here are just some of the charges the Tornado fighters were tried on: There are no charges under the article murder among those listed. Onishchenko was taken into custody for 11 years, another 11 fighters - for terms ranging from 5-10 . 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. Mujahid came up with the idea of shooting a movie in the basement involving prisoners, he called it just like that the cinema", says one of the battalion fighters, for whom the prosecutor's office has no questions and he was not prosecuted. Veterans of the Azov Battalion, who took part in the war with Russia-backed separatists in the east of Ukraine, salute during a mass 'No Surrender' rally in Kyiv in March 2020 Sergei Supinsky . [29]After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government announced general mobilisation [30] and formed new territorial defense battalions to accommodate the influx in men. For example, when a Novaya Gazeta* correspondent talked to both residents of Lugansk region and former Tornado fighters, he discovered a rather unambiguous picture ("The Tornado Effect", an article from 17 October 2016).Gradually it became clear to us that all those 'separatists' in the basements that Freeman (Onishchenko) and his people told us about were simple drunks and workers from Severodonetsk and the surrounding towns and cities but not militants of any kind. They were personally loyal to the commander and ready to carry out any assignment. During the opening stages of the war in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military and police forces were largely ineffective in separatist areas, often surrendering equipment or overwhelmed in cities by large crowds of civilians. 22nd Territorial Defence Battalion "Kharkiv", General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 24th Territorial Defence Battalion "Aidar", 34th Territorial Defence Battalion "Batkivshchyna", 40th Territorial Defence Battalion "Kryvbas", 1st Independent Motorized Infantry Battalion, 2nd Independent Motorized Infantry Battalion, "Undeclared War: Putin's Covert Invasion of Eastern Ukraine", "Ukraine crisis: Why the U.S. isn't tougher on Russia", ">Territorial Defense Battalions (BTrO / BTD)", "Ukraine's volunteer battalions: The new model army", , , , , . The "Greys" were ordinary guys without any military experience who came as volunteers. 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. You can call it a disarmament operation. Access to the chat has been blocked for violating the. The Tornado unit was formed in October 2014 as part of Ukrainian Interior Ministry. [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. They hit them repeatedly with their hands, feet, plastic pipes and other objects, mainly on their legs, buttocks and intimate areas. [31] In social media statements by the TDF, several previously unseen battalion numbers (some exceeding the theoretical 150 number), such as the 103rd,[32] 124th,[33] 130th,[34] 251st [35] etc. Moreover, survivors and witnesses of torture were simply afraid to testify against their torturers. There are reports that the former Tornado members have seized APCs and additional weapons from the Ukrainian Armed Forces and have started doing their usual business. 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. "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. But Tornado outdid the latter in the heinousness of its crimes. After some time, they took him out of the basement ("the pit") and while he was in a sitting position, some unidentified individuals beat his legs and back with an iron pipe. Immediately after the detention, they stripped the man down to his underwear, searched him, and hit him several times without finding anything. Volunteers provide things like: hygiene items, food, sleeping bags, night vision goggles and multicopters (for use as drones).[5]. 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. Source: this information was confirmed by Prosecutor Andriy Syniuk from the . 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 . 45 , , Zaporizhia Oblast will create a new battalion of heavy machinery, "Territorial Defence Battalion disbanded due to looting", "Russian Communist Party wants Ukrainians fighting in the east classified as "terrorists", People's Front names top ten candidates in elections, Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament, People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections CEC, Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament CEC, Video of first brawl in Verkhovna Rada becomes a YouTube hit, "Frontline politics: Ukraine fighters run for parliament", War veterans steal limelight in Ukraine's new parliament, ": ", " ", "In Ukraine will be formed more than 150 territorial defence battalions", "Verkhovna Rada approves decree on mobilisation in Ukraine", "Ukrainian Defense Ministry to create 150 reservist battalions", https://twitter.com/TDF_UA/status/1593887552892796928, , https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ukrainian_territorial_defence_battalions&oldid=1138452268, 17 March 2014 Ukraine began first stage of, 18 March 2014 3rd Territorial Defence Battalion was created in, 19 March 2014 the Defence Regiment was created in, 6th Territorial Defence Battalion was created in, 9th Territorial Defence Battalion was created in, 23 April 2014 The 13th Territorial Defence Battalion was created in, 24 April 2014 The 15th Territorial Defence Battalion was created in, The 17th Territorial Defence Battalion was created in. Robot. The ships of the "Karakurt" and "Buyan-M" projects with "Caliber" went to the exercises in the Baltic Sea, The weather on Tuesday: cold, lightly snowy in the southeast, and rainy in Corsica, The lawyer's concern: The verdict could lead to fewer reports, What is the fate of Zelensky after the end of the war? The detainees were also forced to rape each other anally and orally. The correspondence is stacked with a large number of relevant photographs.Volodymyr Savanchuk, a volunteer, is now also on trial. 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. Near Kiev detained "Mojahed" - the most bloodthirsty fighter units "Tornado". [5] Battalions generally took their name from wherever most of their recruits were from. Once again, let us turn to the information that a correspondent of Novaya Gazeta* was able to obtain from a former "Tornado" member:You could roughly divide the Tornado personnel into three groups. Former prisoners told how in 2014 opponents of the Kyiv regime were kept and tortured at this base. All those convicted fall under the Savchenko Law (one day in pre-trial detention counts as two days in prison). The Special Police Forces (Ukrainian: ) is a Ukrainian volunteer corps of law enforcement units, part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The detainees in my presence were forced to rape each other at gunpoint. Who are Tornado troops? And forced the prisoners to do all this, and if they refused, they were beaten until they agreed. We never found those people and we believe they are no longer alive. The elderly man was put in the basement, where there were eight other people besides him. Freeman found all this amusing. They say they want to defend their freedom. These guys were so bad that even the Nazis from the Azoz Battalion testified against them and the Ukes were forced to jailed them for war crimes. Including those known for their particular cruelty, penchant for sadism, paedophilia, incest and other monstrous pathologies. On February 23, the Russian defense ministry claimed that Ukrainian armed forces were planning a provocation against the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria "with the involvement of the nationalist Azov battalion." The ministry added that Ukraine plans to stage an attack by Russian forces in Transnistria as a "pretext to invade." The Ukrainian military revolted after they had learnt that Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov was planning to disband the Tornado battalion KIEV, June 18 /TASS/. "Mujahid (Danil Lyashuk), a supporter of the Islamic State (a terrorist organisation outlawed in Russia), according to Ukraine's Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios, was known for his exceptional cruelty: "Lyashuk committed with extreme cynicism and audacity, cruelty and ruthlessness the most brutal torture of the local population of Lugansk region, organised and directly participated in the rape of detainees whom he and other suspects abducted for profit. Another battalion that started life as a right-wing militia, the Tornado battalion was . "Rape, Torture, Robbery: Victim Testimonies Against Ukrainian Tornado Battalion (ENG SUBS)." Zone (blog), March 9, 2022. https://www.stalkerzone.org . Radical politicians, members of neo-Nazi movements and ATO veterans, who were convinced that the charges were fabricated, demanded an open trial. Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoly Matios said Commander of the battalion Onishchenko - has five previous convictions -created a criminal gang in the town of Privolye and incited his officers to grave crimes. Right Sector, and Tornado battalions . 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. To get rid of the defenders. **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. #Ukraine: Today Ruslan Onishchenko, the commander of the Neo-Nazi Tornado battalion, was released from prison by the Zelensky regime, alongside thousands of other criminals.Onishchenko was previously condemned to 10 years imprisonment for rape, torture and murder of civilians. Territorial defence battalions (Ukrainian: , romanized:Bataliony terytorialnoi oborony) were volunteer military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine under the auspices of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence in 20142015. Then Ruslan Onishchenko told us to rape him. The explanation is simple no bodies were found, and so far, all the victims have been reported missing. SHARES. NEO-NAZI militias in Ukraine are preparing for all-out war with Russia as they arm themselves for the fight against Vladimir Putin's forces. KYIV -- Ukrainian prosecutors and defense lawyers have both vowed to appeal the verdicts and prison sentences . He is on trial for molesting his own young children. Those caught would be returned to the Tornado, where the same pattern of beatings and torture would be repeated.Some of the Tornado men have personally confessed to having a tendency towards sadism, a predilection for torture. In addition, he was in the basement in darkness and could not observe the change of day and night.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.Later, SBU officers deceived Mr M. by promising to exchange him for the UAF fighters who were being held captive by illegal armed groups, and forced him to testify about his involvement in terrorist activities. Two Tornado members recorded the process I mentioned on mobile phones". To prevent me from running away, they put metal handcuffs on my leg, which they attached to a 24 kg kettlebell. If they got killed, the Tornado had nothing to do with it they were not officially listed, just like the Blacks. How could someone recruit a gang into a battalion? He would show this video to half the battalion. 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