A Ukrainian mother describes how the Russians stripped her naked, had 15 men rape her and only stopped torturing her when she “screamed loud enough” – and how they made a chilling threat to her daughter, aged five.
A brave Ukrainian mother has told how Russian militants stripped her naked and allowed 15 men to rape her before issuing a chilling threat to her daughter’s life.
Born in 1981, Natalia Vlasova was brutally tortured and sexually abused by the Russians after being captured in the Donbas in 2018, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a moving description of the ordeal she endured in prison, Vlasova tells Human rights in Ukraine how her teeth were filed away by Vasyl Yevdokimov – a key figure in Russia’s secret torture prison Izolyatsia.
She claimed that Yevdokimov, also known as Lenin, had electrocuted her by sending currents through her body and that the brutal militants would not end their abuse until she screamed “loud enough” to satisfy them.
The mother described her attackers as maniacs and said not everyone “would be able to take pleasure in causing pain to a naked and tied woman, and in committing all kinds of other perversions.”
“Yevdokimov himself filed my teeth with a nail file, twisted my nipples and tried to push a bottle into my vagina,” she said in her disturbing statement.
But the abuse didn’t stop there. Vlasova recalled how her torturers tied her limbs with tape, poured water on her and connected electrical wires to her skin.
“If I didn’t scream enough, they increased the current and the shocks became even more intense,” she said.
Natalia Vlasova, pictured center, was subjected to horrific physical and sexual abuse by Russian militants after her arrest in 2018
Vlasova told Human Rights in Ukraine how her teeth were filed away by Vasyl Yevdokimov – a key figure in Russia’s secret torture prison Izolyatsia (photo)
‘They needed a response. I didn’t understand that right away. When I shouted loud enough, I heard their satisfied voices.’
After the gruesome torture session was over, the prisoner was again tied up, this time with her hands up, and forced into a small locked room where she was forced to stand all night.
Or she was sent to a small room in the basement that was so cramped that a person could only stand or sit there.
According to Vlasova, the nights were terribly cold and she had only a small amount of water.
The Ukrainian was also systematically raped and told of incidents in which up to fifteen men had abused her in this way at the same time.
And as if torturing her wasn’t enough, they started threatening the life of her young daughter.
The Russian-controlled militants claimed to know where her five-year-old daughter, Yulia, went to kindergarten and threatened to send her a toy containing a bomb to kill her.
Izolyatsia.ui claims that until 2017 there were no toilets in the basement cells of the Izolyatsia and the prisoners were only allowed to use the toilet once a day for a few minutes.
Izolyatsia.ui claims that until 2017 there were no toilets in the basement cells of the Izolyatsia and that the prisoners were only allowed to use the toilet once a day for a few minutes
The prison’s website also states that in the early years of Izolyatsia, “the Russian-backed illegal armed formations tortured the prisoners and broadcast images on a screen with the audio at full volume to intimidate the other prisoners.”
“Later they started torturing prisoners with the main cells directly on the ground. Moreover, almost all prisoners are tortured, even those who have previously confessed to ‘crimes’.
Vlasova, along with Ukrainian Serhiy Hruzynov and Victor Shydlovsky, were all given prison sentences of 18 to 22 years by Russia’s military court in the Southern District in 2018.
The trio were tried on Russian charges of “terrorism” after obtaining a videotaped “confession” that the Ukrainians planned to kill Vasyl Yevdokimov.
But the confessions were all retracted because they were obtained through torture methods.
Hruzynov had been imprisoned since December 2018, Vlasova and Shydlovsky since March 2019, and all parties denied any involvement in plans to kill anyone.
Shydlovsky and Vlasova only admitted to using false documents.
On December 24, 2024, Judge Oleg Aleksandrovich Cherepov of the Military Court of the Southern District sentenced Hruzynov to 20 years and Victor Shydlovsky to 22 years, both in a high-security prison colony.
Vlasova was sentenced to 18 years in a medium-security prison colony.