Workers from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have recounted their fears of being abducted and tortured by Russian forces occupying the facility and the city of Enerhodar.
Ukrainian officials say the Russians have sought to intimidate the staff into keeping the plant running, through beatings and other abuse, and to punish those who express support for Kyiv.
Enerhodar’s exiled mayor Dmytro Orlov estimated that more than 1,000 people, including plant workers, were abducted from Enohodar, and an estimated 100-200 remain abducted.
Mr Orlov alleged they were tortured at various locations in Enerhodar, including at the city’s police station and in basements elsewhere.
“Terrible things happen there,” he said.
“People who managed to come out say there was torture with electric currents, beatings, rape, shootings… some people didn’t survive.”
Last Friday, the plant’s director, Ihor Murashov, was seized and blindfolded by Russian forces on his way home from work.
He was freed on Monday after being forced to make false statements on camera, according to Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear company.
Mr Kotin said: “I would say it was mental torture.
“He had to say that all the shelling on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was made by Ukrainian forces and that he is a Ukrainian spy… in contact with Ukrainian special forces.”
Mr Orlov, who spoke to Mr Murashov after his release, said the plant official told him he had spent two days “in solitary confinement in the basement, with handcuffs and a bag on his head. His condition can hardly be called normal”.
Shelling and damage near the site have raised international alarm over the plant’s safety, as both Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shelling.