You're reading: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Shadowy specter of Russia hangs over rumored ‘death squads’ in Ukraine

After being kidnapped on Jan. 22, Dmytro Bulatov says he was kept blindfolded for eight days as his abductors beat him, sliced off part of his ear, drove nails through his hands, and finally left him for dead in a forest. Through the ordeal, he never once saw his captors. But he could hear them. And when he was finally returned to safety, Bulatov -- one of the leaders of Automaidan, the automotive flank of Ukraine's Euromaidan protests -- said on January 31 that his captors had spoken "with a Russian accent."

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