Kyrylo Barannik, a Simferopol resident detained by the FSB in occupied Crimea, reported brutal torture by electric shock. The occupiers suspect him of allegedly blowing up a railway near the village of Poshtove in Bakhchisarai district in February 2023.

Occupation forces detained master of sports in orienteering Kyrylo Barannik in Simferopol. According to the Graty media outlet, the occupiers severely tortured the man to extract a confession to other “sabotage” on the peninsula.

Kyrylo Barannik, 26, lives in Simferopol with his retired mother. He is a master of sports in orienteering and has participated in many competitions, including international competitions under the flag of Ukraine in 2016. On May 30, FSB officers detained him on the Salgir embankment, put a bag over his head and took him to the special service’s office. After interrogation, he pleaded guilty to blowing up the railroad tracks.

During the search for the “guilty”, the FSB conducted more than 20 searches, detained and interrogated mostly representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. Despite the fact that Mr. Kyrylo pleaded guilty during the first interrogation, the occupiers put a mask on his head, began to beat him severely, tied his hands and feet with duct tape, connected wires to his fingers and tortured him with electricity for about an hour. The illegally detained man told about this in a statement to the occupation “Investigative Committee of Crimea” and called for bringing the perpetrators to justice.

The so-called “protocol” was drawn up by the occupiers only the next day, after which the occupation court illegally arrested the man and sent him to SIZO #2. On the night of June 5-6, Barannik was again taken to the FSB office and tortured with electric shock for several hours to confess to blowing up the railway near the village of Chistenke, Simferopol district, on May 18. The illegally detained man refused to admit his involvement even under torture, so on the night of June 9-10, he was taken out of the detention center again and tortured all night long: he was electrocuted, beaten and threatened with rape and murder of his mother.

The Mission demands the immediate release of Ukrainian citizen Kirill Barannik. We draw the attention of the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to another violation of the rights and freedoms of a Ukrainian citizen. We call on the international community to react to another gross violation of human rights and freedoms in the occupied Crimea and to increase pressure on Russia.

Political persecution and repressions in the temporarily occupied territory of the Crimean peninsula must stop immediately, which is impossible without de-occupation of Crimea.