The gruesome images of, among other things, a box full of gold teeth, shared by researcher of the national security service in Kharkiv Serhii Bolvinov, provoked shocked reactions worldwide on Wednesday. According to Ukrainian authorities, a Russian torture chamber had been discovered in Pisky-Radkivski. People would have been forced to inhale smoke and buried alive. The teeth would have been pulled out. Neighbors heard constant yelling. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry shared the footage and captioned it: “A box of gold dental crowns. A mini Auschwitz. How many more will be found in occupied Ukraine?”
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The German daily Bild went to the recently liberated Pisky-Radkivski. There, dentist Sergey (60) doubts the suggestion that the gold teeth were pulled from the mouths of torture victims. Or come from killed Ukrainians. “Oh my god, no! They are from people I have dealt with over the years. I pulled those teeth because they were bad.” The man has been working as a dentist for 33 years and “sometimes I pull five to eight teeth a day”. “I’ve removed tens of thousands of teeth, this is just a fraction of them.”
“I am the only dentist here. So if they are found here, they must be mine,” said Sergey. “Those teeth look like the ones from my collection that was looted here.” The man showed Bild a similar collection.
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According to the dentist, Russians who looted his house probably stole the crowns because they thought they were real gold, when in fact they are made of stainless steel. The Russians would also have used them to intimidate Ukrainians. “Local residents reported to me that Russians were apparently using this to scare people,” Sergey told Bild.
cry for help
The teeth may have a less sinister provenance than the Ukrainian authorities suggest, but the existence of the torture chamber and torture is confirmed in the village. Residents told German reporters that they heard cries for help from various buildings in their village.
Volodya (46) testified that he was taken by Russian soldiers after a neighbor called him pro-Ukrainian. “When I was beaten, they said, ‘If you don’t cooperate, we’ll shoot you in the leg’. Another said, ‘Why shoot him in the legs? We’ll have to deal with him like everyone else.” And the ceiling of the room was full of bullet holes.”
Andrey, 46, was held in a cellar for five days and beaten by Russian soldiers, his wife Olga told Bild. He was then forced to clear streets and dig trenches in other municipalities. He was gone for two months.
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