David Vagner, a 33-year-old Ukrainian soldier, said Russian soldiers beat him at the Ukrainian anti-aircraft and missile regiment (military unit A-3009) in Sevastopol. The assault took place about midnight on March 27. Vagner also reported being kidnapped for several hours and released the next morning.
The unit is controlled by
Russian military now, but Ukrainian soldiers are still living there, awaiting evacuation
to the mainland.
According to Iryna Baranova,
officer of the Ukrainian anti-aircraft and missile troops, Vagner came to the
unit in order to retrieve his personal belongings. Not wanting to live near the
Russians, he rented an apartment in the city.
He was met by three Russian
soldiers and got into an argument with
them.
“A fight started after I told
them, that this was our land and they should get out of here,” Vagner says. All
three then started beating him.
According to Vagner, the Russians
put a noose around his neck and drove him around the city for a few hours while
checking his documents on databases. “They wanted to make sure that I do not
belong to Right Sector or any other radical organization,” Vagner says.
He is being treated in a
hospital for multiple bruises and may need reconstructive surgery. At the
moment, he has no vision in one eye from the beating.
