An AP all-formats team was ahead of war crimes investigators, documenting evidence of routine torture by Russian occupiers in Izium, Ukraine.
The signs of torture were everywhere. But AP’s team had no idea exactly what they would find when a relative of video journalist Vasilisa Stepanenko recommended a visit to a monastery in recently liberated Izium, Ukraine.
There, Stepanenko and colleagues — Paris-based investigative correspondent Lori Hinnant and Ukraine photographer Evgeniy Maloletka — found a former Ukrainian soldier in hiding after being tortured three times by occupying Russian forces. His disturbing tale supplied the narrative for an exclusive investigation that uncovered 10 torture sites — including one in a kindergarten.
The journalists spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture in the Kharkiv region and two families whose loved ones had disappeared, and confirmed eight men — all but one civilians — were killed under torture in Russian custody. At a mass grave site in the Izium woods, at least 30 of more than 440 bodies bore visible evidence of torture and some of the exhumed had bound wrists.
The reporting revealed arbitrary, widespread, routine torture of civilians and soldiers alike in Izium, which served as a hub for Russian soldiers for nearly seven months. Ukraine recaptured the city in mid-September.
A holding cell in the basement of a police station used by Russian forces while they occupied the town of Izium, Ukraine, shown Sept. 22, 2022. Based on accounts of survivors and police, AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town and gained access to five of them, including the police station.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Mattresses lie on the floor of a holding cell in the basement of a police station used by Russian forces while they occupied Izium, Ukraine, shown Sept. 22, 2022 in the recently liberted town. Based on accounts of survivors and police, the station was a torture site during the Russian occupation.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Spoons rest in a bowl on the floor of a holding cell in the basement of a police station which was used by Russian forces while they occupied Izium, Ukraine, shown Sept. 22, 2022. Based on accounts of survivors and police, this clammy underground jail, reeking of urine and rotting food, was a torture site during the Russian occupation.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Andriy Kotsar, who was captured and tortured three times by Russian soldiers, kisses a cross during a service at Pishchanskyi church in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 21, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Andriy Kotsar, right, who was tortured by Russian soldiers, takes part in a procession near Pishchanskyi church in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 20, 2022. The Russians took away his passport and Ukrainian military ID before letting him go.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Andriy Kotsar, who was captured and tortured three times by Russian soldiers, carries buckets with water near Pishchanskyi monastery in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 20, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Ukrainian paratroopers drive with a Ukrainian flag on a pontoon bridge across Siverskiy-Donets River in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 14, 2022. Izium served as a hub for Russian soldiers for nearly seven months, during which they established torture sites throughout the city.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Unidentified graves of civilians and Ukrainian soldiers are marked with a cross at a cemetery in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 15, 2022. At the mass grave site created by the Russians, at least 30 of the 447 bodies recently exhumed bore visible marks of torture — bound hands, close gunshot wounds, knife wounds and broken limbs, according to the Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Abandoned items sit in a deep, sunless pit at a residential compound in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 20, 2022. Based on accounts of survivors and police, this compound was among torture sites used by Russian suldiers during their occupation of the town.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A church seen in the distance through the ruins of an apartment building destroyed by an airstrike in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 15, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Mykola Mosyakyn stands in a former medical clinic, Sept. 23, 2022, where Russian forces tortured him during their occupation of Izium, Ukraine. , Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. Mosyakyn was beaten repeatedly, his feet shot, and he described how the Russians covered his face with a rag, then poured water onto him to mimic the sensation of drowning.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Mykola Mosyakyn shows scars on his back, Sept. 23, 2022, after torture by Russian soldiers during their occupation of Izium, Ukraine.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a kindergarten basement which was used by Russian forces during their occupation of the village of Kapitolivka near Izium, Ukraine, shown Sept. 25, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Ukrainian servicemen inspect a kindergarten basement which was used by Russian forces during their occupation of the village of Kapitolivka near Izium, Ukraine, shown Sept. 25, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Ludmila Shabelnyk shows photographs of her son Ivan Shabelnyk in the recently liberated village of Kapitolivka near Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 25, 2022. Ivan was one of three men found in a shallow grave in mid-August; he had been captured and tortured while collecting pine cones to heat tea. His hands were shot, his ribs broken, his face unrecognizable. He was identified by the jacket he wore, from the local grain factory where he worked.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Ludmila Shabelnyk cries while showing photographs of her deceased son, Ivan Shabelnyk, in the recently liberated village of Kapitolivka near Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 25, 2022. He was captured and tortured by Russian forces while collecting pine cones to heat tea. His face was unrecognizable; he was identified by the jacket he wore, from the local grain factory where he worked.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Olha Zaparozhchenko stands near the grave, at left, of her brother, Ivan Shabelnyk, a victim of Russian torture, in the recently liberated village of Kapitolivka near Izium, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A soldier's jacket with a Ukrainian flag sits in a room at School No. 2 in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Sept. 21, 2022. The school served as a base and field hospital for Russian soldiers, and was also a torture site, survivors and police told the AP.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Soviet-era gas masks lie on the floor in a corridor of School No. 2 which was used as a Russian military base during their occupation of the town of Izium, Ukraine, shown Sept. 21, 2022. Based on accounts of survivors and police, the school was also a Russian torture site; one form of torture involved the masks, a survivor said.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A man walks through a gym in School No. 2 which was used as a base and field hospital for Russian soldiers during their occupation of the town of Izium, Ukraine, shown Sept. 21, 2022. Based on accounts of survivors and police, the school was used as a Russian torture site.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Damaged and destroyed homes are visible from Russian attacks on the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, shown Sept. 14, 2022. Izium served as a hub for Russian soldiers for nearly seven months, during which they established torture sites throughout the city.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Along with locating the torture sites, the AP gained access to five, arriving before even war crimes investigators. One was viscerally described in the reporting as a deep sunless pit in a residential compound with dates carved in the brick wall; another as a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine and rotting food.
The all-formats package immediately resonated, used widely by AP members and customers. The video, edited by multiformat journalist Allen Breed, had 145,000 views on Twitter alone, while the striking presentation by photo editor Alyssa Goodman kept readers riveted. Readers called the coverage harrowing, and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio called it horrifying.
But the biggest impact was likely on Andriy Kotsar.
Kotsar, the former soldier staying among monks he credits with saving him, was thought dead. The Russians had confiscated the 26-year-old’s identity documents and he was accordingly terrified to go anywhere, with no way to contact loved ones. The AP verified his identity, contacted Ukrainian officials to get him new identity papers and was there when he made his first phone call to tell friends and family he was indeed “alive and in one piece.” For the first time in days, he had a real smile on his face.
For a gritty, deeply reported all-formats investigation that made an impact, exposing evidence of Russian war crimes and the human consequences, Hinnant, Stepanenko and Maloletka earn AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner honors.
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