COLOMBO (News 1st) – A Ukrainian journalist has released horrific details about the seven Sri Lankans who were allegedly captured and tortured by Russian soldiers in the Kharkiv region near the Russian border where there has been intense fighting for months.
The seven are currently safe in a Ukrainian rehabilitation center.The six men and one woman were beaten, two had their nails torn off, and all were forced to work cleaning up a house occupied by Russian soldiers, Sergey Bolvinov, Chief of the Investigative Department of Kharkiv Region Police had told Maria Romanenko, a Ukrainian journalist reporting from the UK.
The Russian soldiers had also tried to extort money from the Sri Lankans. The Kharkiv police have opened an investigation for violation of the laws and customs of war.The seven – some of them students, the others had come for work – aged 20-40, arrived in Ukraine around 3 weeks before the all-out invasion last March and rented a house in Kupiansk, a town that was captured by Russian forces and occupied until it was retaken by the Ukrainian army a few days ago.
They were hiding in their house for some time until they decided to try and flee into Kharkiv, she tweeted.However, they were stopped at the first Russian checkpoint that they tried to cross.