The Kremlin-backed separatists who have seized Stanyslav Aseyev (Vasin) are believed to be using torture to extract a ‘confession’ from the 27-year-old freelance journalist, and to be putting severe pressure on his mother. For understandable reasons, Yehor Firsov, the former Ukrainian MP from Donetsk, who knows the journalist, is not naming his sources, but previous videoed confessions from people in militant custody give strong grounds for fearing that Aseyev is being subjected to such treatment.

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