Standing in line in liberated Kherson for a box of pasta and canned goods with a handsome black dog on a lead, Valerii Hnedov doesn’t look like someone who only three weeks prior was languishing in a Russian torture chamber. Cutting a proud figure at well over six feet tall, the 72-year-old Hnedov was amicable and quick to invite conversation. “Of course I’m happy the Russians are gone, they took so much from me,” he told the Kyiv Independent. “My son has disappeared, we haven’t heard from him in a month, since we were both in the Hole (prison) together.” Hnedov, a former Soviet intelligence officer, spent six weeks in near unlivable conditions in Russian custody during the occupation of Kherson. In this time, he was subjected to numerous brutal torture methods, including electrocution and waterboarding, while his family members were pressed to pay a ransom for his release.
via kyivindependent: Waterboarding, electrocution and a kidnapped son: Ex-general tells of torture in Kherson