A UKRAINIAN prisoner of war who had the words “Glory to Russia” burnt on his skin said he was left begging for death.
After being released in a prisoner swap earlier this year, Andriy Pereverzev has shared unsettling accounts of his time as a captive, detailing a torture method known as “Calling Putin”.
The Ukrainian POW was captured in February 2024 on the battlefield after being severely wounded.
Despite his pleas to just “end it” and “finish” him off, Pereverzev was carried to an encampment where he was brutally tortured.
Speaking for the first time about his experience, Pereverzev told how he was mercilessly electrocuted by Vlad’s troops seeking intelligence.
He said: “While they were carrying me. I kept asking them, ‘Finish me off. Just end it, but they didn’t.
“They used electric shocks on my open wounds a couple of times, and I started blacking out again.
“They stripped me, checked my wounds…..My buttock was shredded.
“They struck my head three times with a five-liter plastic bottle filled with liquid. My hands were bound, and my eyes were covered. That’s how they greeted me. I collapsed and lost consciousness.”
“They used electric shocks on my open wounds a couple of times, and I started blacking out again.
“The guards came in and asked us to recite the Russian national anthem.
“Those who didn’t know it were beaten until they couldn’t get up.”
As well as being horrifically beaten, the POW described how he had the words “Glory to Russia” burned on his skin whilst in captivity.
A disturbing photo emerged earlier this month showing the mutilated soldier.
The phrase, written in Russian, has been branded sideways onto his right flank in large, uneven letters.
Up the middle of the tortured soldier’s torso is another thick, livid scar ragged by rough stick marks.
He also has a tube fitted into his stomach, and another area of major scarring on his left flank.
Referring to the moment he woke up in hospital after the grim procedure he recalled:
“[A Russian nurse told me] Don’t worry, when you get home you can remove it or get a tattoo over it.
“I had no idea what she was talking about. Absolutely none.”
A week later, when his dressing was being changed by two Russian guards, he said he “gasped” when he saw his stomach for the first time.
He recounted: “When I lifted my head to examine my stomach, I saw ‘Glory to Russia’ burned into my skin using a medical cautery tool. A surgeon inflicted this on me.”
When asked how he reacted to the gruesome discovery, Pereverzev told Kyiv-based project UNITED24: “I said, you’re all bastards. I’ll shoot every one of you.”
He was later beaten up, with one soldier “poking” his wounds with his finger.
“It hurt like hell,” he said.
Pereverzev also described another occasion when he was brutally tortured during an interrogation.
He recalled: “One guy was sitting at a table typing on a laptop while the other one was torturing me.
“He kept hitting me on the ears, punching the back of my head using a stun gun on me.
“They asked me where my wound was. I pointed to my leg.
“They ripped off the bandage and started electrocuting me right there directly into the wound. That went on for about 40 minutes.”
Following his release, the Ukrainian POW also told how prisoners would often get wired to an old Soviet phone and their bodies surged with electricity.
The sick torture tactic – dubbed “Calling Putin” — has been known to inflict 80-volt electric shocks into the genitals of captives.
He said: “It’s basically a regular old phone. Two wires are connected to it like clamps, and they can attach them to any part of your body.
“Then they crank the phone handle, lift the receiver, and there is this old Soviet style rotary dial on it.
“The higher the number, you dial from 0 to 9, the stronger the electric current.
“And with each number, the power increases a lot.”
Last year there were reports of “Calling Putin” torture used on suspects in the Crucus City Hall massacre in which 145 died and 551 were wounded.
In this case, Russian interrogators used a TA-57 military telephone attached to the suspect’s genitals.
When he finally returned home, Pereverzev said he had lost 35lbs and his nine-year-old daughter didn’t recognise him.
“I promised her then that no matter what condition I’d be in. Even without arms, without legs, I’d still come back,” he said.
