Ukrainian soldier Andriy Pereverzev said his Russian torturers used a technique they referred to as “Calling Putin” which involved them taking wires from Soviet-era phones and using them to electrocute their prisoners
A Ukrainian former prisoner of war has spoken for the first time after Kremlin soldiers branded him with the words “Glory to Russia” on his abdomen.
Andriy Pereverzev recalled another barbaric torture method – named ‘Calling Putin’ – when wires from an old Soviet phone are attached to a victim with an electric current surged through the POW’s body. It’s believed this could inflict an 80-volt electric shock into the genitals of captives.
Andriy said he was captured in February 2024 on the battlefield after being severely wounded. Once in the custody of Putin’s fighters, it didn’t take long before they turned to torture – electrocuting him in his open wound, seeking to extract any useful intelligence.
Andriy has identified himself after his vile branding story was revealed earlier this month following his return home in a prisoner swap, but now he has revealed further horrific details of torture routinely carried out by Putin’s troops.
He was in hospital after surgery and a Russian nurse said to him: “Don’t worry, when you get home you can remove it or get a tattoo over it.”
He said: “I had no idea what she was talking about. Absolutely none.”
A week later when his dressing was being changed by two Russian guards, he “finally managed to gather enough strength to lift my head off the pillow, just to see what was going on with my stomach.”
He strained to examine his midriff – and “gasped”.
“I lifted my head just to look at my stomach,” he said.“And there it was. ‘Glory to Russia.’ Burned into my skin with a medical cautery tool. The surgeon did this to me.”
Asked what he said, Andriy told Kyiv-based project UNITED24: “I said, you’re all bastards. I’ll shoot every one of you.” In response, they “beat me up”. While changing the bandages “one of them started poking me in my wounds with his fingers. It hurt like hell.”
On another occasion, he was interrogated by suspected FSB agents in balaclavas.
“One guy was sitting at a table typing on a laptop while the other one was torturing me,” he said. “He kept hitting me on the ears, punching the back of my head using a stun gun on me. They asked me where my wound was. I pointed to my leg. They ripped off the bandage and started electrocuting me right there directly into the wound. That went on for about 40 minutes.”
He revealed another form of torture suffered by his comrades, but not him.
“It’s basically a regular old phone,” he said. “Two wires are connected to it like clamps, and they can attach them to any part of your body. Then they crank the phone handle, lift the receiver, and there is this old Soviet style rotary dial on it.
“The higher the number, you dial from 0 to 9, the stronger the electric current. And with each number, the power increases a lot.”
Last year there were reports of ‘Calling Putin’ torture used on suspects in the Crucus City Hall massacre in which 145 died and 551 were wounded.
In this case, Russian interrogators used a TA-57 military telephone attached to the suspect’s genitals.
Andriy told how he had been severely wounded when he fell into Russian hands.
“While they were carrying me. I kept asking them, ‘Finish me off’,” he said. “Just end it, but they didn’t….’” They used electric shocks on my open wounds a couple of times, and I started blacking out again.”
He said: “They stripped me, checked my wounds…..My buttock was shredded.”
The torture started as soon as he was captured. “Three hits to the head with a filled five litre plastic bottle. My hands were tied, my eyes were covered. That was their welcome. I fell, blacked out….,” he said.
“They used electric shocks on my open wounds a couple of times, and I started blacking out again.”
In yet another war crime, he told how “the guards came in and asked us to recite the Russian national anthem.
“Those who didn’t know it were beaten until they couldn’t get up.”
When he finally got back home, he had lost 35lbs after time in hellhole Russian hospitals and prisons. His daughter, nine, “didn’t recognise me, but I recognised her right away”. He continued: “When he went to war in I promised her then that no matter what condition I’d be in. Even without arms, without legs, I’d still come back.”