It was found that 43 fighters of the Tornado battalion have criminal records, according to Ukrainian Military Prosecutor Anatoly Matios. 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. On 17 June 2015, eight members of the battalion, including battalion commander Ruslan Onishchenko, were detained. They repeatedly tried to storm the courthouse. They did not talk to me and did not explain the reason for my detention. To get rid of the defenders. Breaking News: Ukrainian Militants Attack Village in Russia's Bryansk Region, Governor Says, https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/04/15/1094946339_76:0:525:337_1920x0_80_0_0_f96c19e0a23c95831325c0bba93a1c83.jpg.webp. The Ukrainians and the Azov regiment have been doing an excellent job of 'de-nazifying' Ukraine. Remember when Zelensky said he would release prisoners with . Such torture was carried out with two stun guns, which were applied to every man in the presence of Tornado battalion fighters. The said events and torture were recorded by Tornado members on mobile phones. Moreover, survivors and witnesses of torture were simply afraid to testify against their torturers. Sputnik News. Since February, videos have been appearing on social networks in which Lyashuk with a weapon in his hands says that he is fighting as a member of the Ukrainian Army. Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has offered Germany to transfer Tornado fighter jets planned for decommissioning to Ukraine. the insignia of the notorious rapists and murderers of the "Tornado" battalion. The Tornado fighters came to this grandmother's house, pulled a new mattress right out from under her and left. 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. "The Blacks were fighters who were not formally recruited because they had criminal records; Freeman actively recruited them into the Tornado. 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 barricaded themselves in their base (the school premises), booby-trapped the approaches and said they were ready to use weapons in the event of an assault.The then Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoliy Matios commented situation:If this situation is not resolved today or tomorrow, it will be what it should be under the law. By Interfax-Ukraine. Despite the enormous amount of circumstantial evidence, it is very difficult to prove murder unless a body is found. In autumn 2014 most of the territorial defence battalions were reorganized as motorized infantry battalions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The volunteer battalion was formed in 2014, and recognized by the interior ministry, and fought in eastern Ukraine in the ongoing conflict against the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Nevertheless, the formation of the new national battalion was not kept secret. 47. They immediately received an assault rifle and were trained by more experienced fighters. In total, I was kept in the basement for 17-18 days. KYIV -- Ukrainian prosecutors and defense lawyers have both vowed to appeal the verdicts and prison sentences . However, they never rushed there, preferring to engage in torture, provocation, mockery and robbery behind the lines. To get rid of the defenders. The attack lasted only three minutes or so, but imagery posted online of the alleged aftermath reported a scene of devastation and scores . If you are ready to die, you have the right to kill. If we refused to work, the Tornado members threatened to kill us. Signs of torture inflicted on victims by members of the Tornado national battalionJournalists from various media outlets with different viewpoints collected the evidence. Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in February 2014 and the War on Donbass since April 2014, several military formations have appeared. 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. The public learned about the crimes of the Shakhtyorsk battalion almost straight away. 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. Those who managed to escape found themselves with no documents, since the commander would confiscate the passports of the new recruits. Hed served time in prison twice and was a member of an organised crime group. According to its data, the former commander of the disbanded company of . "He forced me to share a room with him. The Tornado members themselves did not accept this decision. Before the invasion, the Ukrainian military had already begun an expansion process of the territorial defense forces in preparation of the Russian invasion. They had nothing to lose and nowhere to return. But there was an unusual element to the event. 6 May 2014 Ukraine began a second stage of mobilization. This was in 2016. They repeatedly tried to storm the courthouse. Meet Ukraine's "Tornado Battalion" Who filmed themselves raping BABIES in front of their mothers! "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. 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. 264. According to the military prosecutor's office, the fighters of this battalion practiced extrajudicial killings, torture and rape against civilians. According to former Tornado members, there was no hurry to officially recruit them, although Freeman promised that after the training they would be registered according to all the regulations. 11 September 2015. 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. The court hearings were held behind closed doors, without public access. 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. Then they (Tornado members) used bare current-carrying wires to touch various parts of the prisoners bodies, such as the temples, the penis and the scrotum. 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. 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. According to the former MP Ihor Mosiychuk, Mujahid, who received a ten-year sentence, was released back in the summer of 2021. To prevent me from running away, they put metal handcuffs on my leg, which they attached to a 24 kg kettlebell. The Ukrainian far and fascistic right was then mobilised in 2013-14 to overthrow the more pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. In the basement, the men were stripped naked, placed on a concrete floor, and doused with water. That's fair, says Onishchenko. In other words, the regional authorities asked Kiev to disarm those who were sent to protect civilians. One of the detainees was forced to suck and lick a plastic tube and imitate oral sex and pretend to suck a penis. **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. "The Shakhtyorsk battalion, having fought beautifully at Ilovaisk, was disbanded by ministerial order because of repeated incidents of looting in Volnovakha and other instances". Immediately after the detention, they stripped the man down to his underwear, searched him, and hit him several times without finding anything. According to witnesses and leaks, Onishchenko, together with his team and other criminals involved, has formed a new battalion stationed near Kiev. Are you sure that is what they did? The SNA and the Patriot of Ukraine, together with Svoboda and . 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. The Tornado battalion was founded as an occult structure which was set up and developed at the State University of Informatics and Artificial Intelligence in Donetsk, said philosopher, political scientist, . Rallies of support for the Tornadoes were held outside the court building and supporters threatened to take the building by storm. Moreover, survivors and witnesses of torture were simply afraid to testify against their torturers. Here is how he commented on his actions on Ukrainian television: In other words, he knew of at least some of the crimes, and even then, in 2014, the obvious criminals were deliberately not put on trial and were never punished, but simply assigned to other "volunteer battalions" (ed. The 'Tornado battalion' used rape and torture as weapons of war a war Zelenskyy's government has been waging against the people of Donetsk and Luhansk. For instance, members of "tornado" battalion accused of kidnappings, tor-ture and rape, denied their responsibility, claiming that they had kept in the places of detention ("in basements") only the "separatists"3. But Tornado outdid the latter in the heinousness of its crimes. Tornado battalion soldiers to be redeployed. Anatoly Plamadyal received a sentence of eight years in prison. They did a horrible thing to my son. 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. During . In March 2014 acting President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov issued an order to create seven territorial defence battalions. Things were getting so bad that they would go along the street, smash up all the houses, and take everything. 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. In the summer of 2015, Ukraine witnessed a scandal over the Tornado battalion men whod only recently been hailed as. 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. Freeman found all this amusing. If you joined the battalion, it was virtually impossible to leave. The national battalion was stationed in the part of the Lugansk region which was under Ukrainian control (not to be confused with the LPR - Sputnik). Many agreed and came. Both agreed that a public trial was needed. KUPIANSK, Ukraine (AP) A tank carrying Ukrainian infantry speeds toward a target position marked with a metal sheet. Tornado battalion (which actually was only a company) was created in 2014 in Zaporizhia and came under command of the Ministry of Interior.. The next day, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov signed an order to disband the Tornado battalion.The Tornado members themselves did not accept this decision. 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. 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. In particular, Matios said, in the local school basement where they . 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.Zelensky Frees Tornado and Sends Back to the FrontIn February 2022, prisoners with military experience who were ready to take part in combat activity, under martial law, started to be released from their places of detention, a prosecutor's office official, Andriy Sinyuk, told reporters.Later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainians with combat experience were released from detention and had all sanctions lifted.The criminals released under the emergency amnesty are now not just at large; they were given weapons. Those caught would be returned to the Tornado, where the same pattern of beatings and torture would be repeated. Members of the Ukrainian National Guard's Azov Battalion and the far-right radical group Right Sector take part in a rally in Kiev on October 14, 2016. . Boris Gulchuk, Maxim Khlebov and Ilya Kholod received nine years in prison each. 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 . "The Blacks were fighters who were not formally recruited because they had criminal records; Freeman actively recruited them into the Tornado. 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. Here are just some of the charges the Tornado fighters were tried on: There are no charges under the article murder among those listed. 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