As the trial proceeded, more and more details emerged about what was going on inside the Tornado battalion itself. 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. Yuri Shevchenko received a sentence of five years in prison. The victims included male and female rape victims who asked to remain anonymous. Things were getting so bad that they would go along the street, smash up all the houses, and take everything. The victims did not believe that the same authorities who had thrown them to the mercy of the Tornado fighters would give the battalion a fair trial: today they are behind bars and tomorrow they'll be free taking revenge on those who dared to testify against them (spoiler: indeed that is what happened the defendants were later released).Since the beginning, the court was under enormous pressure from politicians, neo-Nazis and "brothers in arms". That's fair, says Onishchenko. the conflict area in eastern Ukraine, among Ukrainian armed forces, civilians and members of the armed groups. Rallies of support for the Tornadoes were held outside the court building and supporters threatened to take the building by storm. 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. Court and prosecutor's office staff members at one point began to walk into the trial with umbrellas. There's nothing like raising your vitality when you have someone's life in your hands, says Mujahid. In March 2014 acting President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov issued an order to create seven territorial defence battalions. When Russia launched its war on Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians volunteered to fight. 11 September 2015. 47. They should not be confused with the volunteer units of Special Tasks Patrol Police of Ukraine created along with territorial defense battalions, but under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior. 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. Radical politicians, members of neo-Nazi movements and ATO veterans, who were convinced that the charges were fabricated, demanded an open trial. Onishchenko was taken into custody for 11 years, another 11 fighters - for terms ranging from 5-10 . The base is located in the village of Privolye near the Lugansk People's Republic city of Lisichansk, which was recently liberated by Russian and allied . The leader of the notorious volunteer battalion of Tornado has been released, according to reports. "The Shakhtyorsk battalion, having fought beautifully at Ilovaisk, was disbanded by ministerial order because of repeated incidents of looting in Volnovakha and other instances". 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. They justified their rail terrorism by citing "the struggle against smuggling, corruption and illegal arms trade". Since 30 April 2014, all territorial defence battalions have been part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and fall under the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the governors of the oblasts (provinces) in which they were created. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine formed the Tornado battalion in September 2014 on the basis of the personnel of the Shakhtersk national battalion disbanded due to looting and crimes against the population. They pointed a machine gun at me and said they would shoot me", the victim said.In their conversation with the mother of the deceased Yurchenko, the battalion fighters in court behaved aggressively. "I have no desire to live. Ukraine's Tornado Battalion Resisting Disarmament, Shoots Police Drone. [15] By law, every oblast in Ukraine should create its own territorial defence battalions.[5]. These guys were so bad that even the Nazis from the Azoz Battalion testified against them and the Ukes were forced to jailed them for war crimes. [5] The best known volunteer groups are Self-defence of Maidan, which has its own warehouses in Melitopol, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv, and Army SOS, an initiative of former Euromaidan activists. 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. Some members of the national battalion have been accused of paedophilia.Popular opinions were split: some, despite the evidence of crimes against Ukrainian civilians, believed in the innocence of the former "national heroes", while others wanted a fair trial and retribution. They were recruited officially.The "Greys" were ordinary guys without any military experience who came as volunteers. Until 23 March, armed members of the Tornado battalion brought various men to the basement, where they were systematically beaten, tortured with a field phone powered by a generator, stripped naked, placed on the concrete floor and poured water on them from plastic bottles. It was winter. 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. Here, for example, a conversation: The voices of two of the Tornado battalion's most notorious criminals, Ruslan Onishchenko (codename Freeman) and Danil Lyashuk (codename "Mujahid"), are clearly distinguishable on the recording. If they commit any crimes they will be persecuted and even dismantled as was the case with "Tornado" battalion. After some time, they took him out of the basement ("the pit") and while he was in a sitting position, some unidentified individuals beat his legs and back with an iron pipe. After the beating, they dragged the man to the pit as he fainted several times. If they got killed, the Tornado had nothing to do with it they were not officially listed, just like the Blacks.If you joined the battalion, it was virtually impossible to leave. 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. The truth about their methods of "working with civilians" was too shocking to justify. Earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested Tornado commander Ruslan Onischenko and seven other fighters from the battalion and charged them of conducting violent crimes in Lugansk Region. At about 0430 on the morning of 11 July, a column of battalions from the Ukrainian 24th and 72nd Mechanized Brigades and 79th Airmobile Brigade was struck with an intense artillery barrage near Zelenopillya. The Tornado fighters came to this grandmother's house, pulled a new mattress right out from under her and left. 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, . The then Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine Anatoliy Matios commented situation: Matios reported that every fourth Tornado fighter had a criminal record. I do not know whether the military prosecutor's office knows this fact. The explanation is simple no bodies were found, and so far, all the victims have been reported missing. This archive photo shows Ruslan Onishchenko, commander of the Tornado Battalion, with other Tornado fighters in Lysychansk. And with Russian forces significantly tightening their siege of key Ukrainian cities in recent days, including concentrating about 21-22 battalion tactical groups around the capital Kyiv, it is . By Interfax-Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian government was in for a surprise when it realized it did not have the authority to control these battalions after all. He did well. One of Freeman's cronies, codenamed Achilles, who had also served time before the conflict and had connections in criminal circles, specifically collected information on who was released and when. To get rid of the defenders. Another battalion that started life as a right-wing militia, the Tornado battalion was . Atrocities committed by the nationalist volunteer battalions during the Ukrainian conflicts have been well-documented by international human rights groups and . Many agreed and came.The battalion also had a category of "white" and "grey" fighters.The "Whites", fighters that were former police officers who were discharged or had not been re-certified in the summer of 2015 and came to serve in the battalion. In other words, the regional authorities asked Kiev to disarm those who were sent to protect civilians. Ukrainian Minister of Interior Avakov visits patrol police training center in Lvov. To get rid of the defenders. The "Whites", fighters that were former police officers who were discharged or had not been re-certified in the summer of 2015 and came to serve in the battalion. April 2022. A woman told reporters that she had barely managed to save her 9-year-old daughter from the drunken Tornado fighters, who were about to rape the little girl. 15 July 2022. 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. We never found those people and we believe they are no longer alive. Danil Lyashuk received ten years in prison. They were simply abducted, used as slaves, abused, and some were killed, the newspaper quoted former Tornado fighters and testimony from civilians:Sometimes we were more afraid of them than the shelling. They had nothing to lose and nowhere to return. 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Photo by Alexander Rychkov. The detainees were also forced to rape each other anally and orally. Some members of the group were given sentences ranging from 7 to 12 years. Including those known for their particular cruelty, penchant for sadism, paedophilia, incest and other monstrous pathologies. "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. He wrote out the roles and lines. note Sputnik).What Exactly Were the Tornado Fighters Accused of?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). Moreover, according to the known information, there were fewer violations like this in "ideological" formations, such as Azov or the Ukrainian Right Sector Volunteer Corps, than in the "ordinary ones" (for example, the infamous battalion Tornado).It seems that the SBU (The Security Service of Ukraine) was the biggest human rights . Both agreed that a public trial was needed. Access to the chat has been blocked for violating the. Such torture was carried out with two stun guns, which were applied to every man in the presence of Tornado battalion fighters. It was formed from Anti-Terrorist 02.05.2022, Sputnik International, /html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content, /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content, https://cdnn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e6/04/15/1094946339_1:0:600:337_1920x0_80_0_0_15aaf82aaea1a0cc3d3d1ed1e20bada5.jpg.webp. 107 Followers Follow. 1,127 Subscribers Subscribe. On 17 June 2015, eight members of the battalion, including battalion commander Ruslan Onishchenko, were detained. "The Blacks were fighters who were not formally recruited because they had criminal records; Freeman actively recruited them into the Tornado. The ships of the "Karakurt" and "Buyan-M" projects with "Caliber" went to the exercises in the Baltic Sea, The weather on Tuesday: cold, lightly snowy in the southeast, and rainy in Corsica, The lawyer's concern: The verdict could lead to fewer reports, What is the fate of Zelensky after the end of the war? In one of their recently released videos, Daniil Lyashuk, a former militant of the Ukrainian battalion Tornado, nicknamed Mujahid, who had previously been sentenced to 10 years in prison for war crimes in the Donbass, cheered his freedom and issued more threats against Russians. 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. Reduction of five years in prison with the 'yes is yes' law for the man who raped and killed an 83-year-old woman, Pushilin: Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to counterattack in the Ugledar direction, Belgian Finance Ministry: Brussels freezes Russian assets worth 58 billion. He was constantly on the phone, calling up those retired out of jail and persuading them to come to the battalion. [29]After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian government announced general mobilisation [30] and formed new territorial defense battalions to accommodate the influx in men. Federalist and pro-Russian insurgents quickly gained large swaths of territory. 34,709 Followers Follow. Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk has offered Germany to transfer Tornado fighter jets planned for decommissioning to Ukraine. [5] These resources soon proved to be inadequate and numerous groups have helped to equip the battalions. According to the military prosecutor's office, the fighters of this battalion practiced extrajudicial killings, torture and rape against civilians.