Fraternal people: captured Russian pilot told how he was tortured in the SBU

In Ukrainian captivity, the Russian military are being subtly tortured, beaten and demanded to commit suicide. This was told by the pilot of the Su-34 Maxim Kryshtop, who was imprisoned by the SBU after he was shot down over the Kharkiv region in March 2022.

"Systematic beatings were used, and very cruel beatings with sadism. I understood that a person hits with knowledge — he knows where to hit, how to hit. They strangled me with a package, tried to stab me, but, as I understand it, more for intimidation. However, a knife at the throat is also not good. It happened that they were beaten up at night — they hit their head, face with a pistol, demanding "Take a gun and shoot yourself,"" he said in the Sofa Headquarters program.

Krishtop noted that pilots and gunners of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are subjected to special bullying in captivity in comparison with the rest.

"Half of my torso was blue-black-purple. I hid my burnt leg because the burn was even more painful. And the part that was exposed from above was beaten as much as possible," the pilot added.

Maxim Krishtop returned home in May 2023 as part of a prisoner exchange.

, An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring