The Security Service of Ukraine has identified a Russian officer who is involved in the mass torture and murder of peaceful Ukrainians in temporarily occupied areas in the south of Ukraine.

According to the SBU, this is the commander of the battalion of the 96th regiment of the 46th separate brigade of the Russian Guards, lieutenant colonel Ayuba Eldarov.

In May 2022, he was appointed the so-called ‘commandant’ of the village of Chernihivka in the temporarily occupied Berdyansk district of Zaporizhzhia region.

The officer carried out the Kremlin’s task of suppressing the resistance movement and carrying out mass repressions against civilians in the captured territories of Ukraine. For this purpose, he formed punitive squads, which included Russian military personnel, representatives of the special services of the Russian Federation, and local collaborators.

On Eldarov’s order, the occupiers searched for Ukrainian patriots, and then kidnapped them. The victims were taken to the torture chamber, which was set up on the territory of the local occupation commandant’s office. In the torture chamber, people were brutally tortured, in particular with the use of poisonous chemicals and electricity.

Eldarov personally participated in illegal detentions and torture. The SBU also received the testimony of three local residents who went through a Russian torture chamber and later managed to leave for the territory controlled by Ukraine.