‘I survived Russian torture and forced labour - I only have one thing to ask Putin’

Among the victims of Putin’s conflict is Olena Yahupova, pictured here with her husband (Image: Getty/ Olena Yahupova)

The illegal invasion of Ukraine ordered by Vladimir Putin nearly three years ago has brought about devastating consequences. While Donald Trump's return to the White House has fuelled speculation about a ceasefire, there is no current end in sight for the devastating conflict.

Despite facing increasing international criticism and crippling sanctions, Putin remains unyielding in his aggressive pursuit of territorial expansion.

His refusal to de-escalate the conflict for nearly three years has led to an ongoing humanitarian crisis, widespread destruction and the loss of a devastatingly high number of innocent civilian lives since the start of the most significant conflict in Europe since World War 2.

As the war drags on, it has become increasingly clear that Putin’s pursuit comes at a devastating cost. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, 12,340 civilians have been killed and 27,836 injured, according to an update released in November last year by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Express.co.uk spoke to Danielle Bell, the OHCHR’s Head of Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, who said: “The civilian toll of this war on Ukraine has been enormous.”

Among the casualties of Putin’s conflict is Olena Yahupova, 52, a woman whose story humanises the chilling statistics of this war. March 16 will mark two years since she was released from Russian captivity, during which she was arrested, tortured and forced into coerced labour by officials and soldiers in the Russian Federation.

On February 27, 2022, the city of Kamianka-Dniprovska in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast where Olena lived was stormed by Russian soldiers. At that time, she lived alone as her children were studying away from home and her husband had been serving in the Ukrainian army since 2018.

She was subsequently put on a list of “dangerous people” for the new administration.

“I think there were several reasons for that,” Olena told Express.co.uk. “First of all, my own personal position was pro-Ukrainian and for almost 30 years I was a civil servant in Ukraine. Then my husband was in the military, and also [the Russian Federation] probably heard about my position and my words.”

A representative of the Federal Security Service of Russia and two representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic came to arrest Olena on October 6, 2022. During the ordeal, they searched her house, but found nothing prohibited. Olena claimed that they then took her to a local police station and started torturing her from the first day of imprisonment.

Months after her horrifying experience, Olena still can’t understand why this happened to her. If she had the chance, she said she would put that to President Putin: “I would ask him why [come] to my house… push me out… and say that it’s his house now?

“I would like him to explain why that happens, I don’t understand.”

Over the course of five to six hours, she said she was tied to a chair and hit with a water bottle with such force that her head was broken in two places and she suffered brain damage. They also put a plastic bag over her head, pinched her nose so she could not breathe and imitated an execution by holding a gun to her head. The next day, the torture continued.

“They were trying to beat testimonies out of me to falsely claim against myself or somebody else,” Olena said.

Olena said she spent four months at the police station without facing any official charges. She slept on a cold floor with no medical assistance and no chance to breathe fresh air. She and the others kept there were fed once a day and had no access to fresh water, she added.

After four months, Olena said she was taken to the small village of Verkhnya Krynytsya, where she suffered an ordeal she equalled to slavery. The 52-year-old claimed she underwent forced labour after being "sold into slavery" to the second defence line of a military unit of the Russian Federation. “This fact of human trafficking that was, and still is happening, is, in my opinion, a violation of legal and human rights”, she said.

Olena claimed that people who faced her same fate were forced to dig trenches and build protection for the Russian military personnel fighting the war in her home country. Among other tasks, they also had to remove mines from the fields. Women were also forced to do laundry and clean the houses of Russian officers, which, she said, “were taken from [Ukrainian locals]”.

“Also, there were cases of the killing of Ukrainian civilians and the [what she claimed to be] slaves were forced to dig out graves for them and bury them,” Olena alleged.

After weeks of this ordeal, one prisoner convinced a Russian soldier to lend him his phone so he could call his family. The prisoner's relatives then called Moscow and complained that people were being "held like slaves".

“On March 14, 2023, we were visited by representatives of Russian Law Enforcement and they took us away from that labour camp [to Russian-occupied Melitopol]," she said. The Russians seemingly acknowledged the illegality of her detention. Olena continued: "They interviewed us and two days later, let us go home”.

With the help of her family, Olena was able to return to Ukraine. (Image: Olena Yahupova)

Convinced Russia would seek to eliminate her, Olena fled her home.

"I am certain that they were looking for me and looking for me," Olena said. "I took screenshots from their group on Telegram, where they wrote: 'If she can't be eliminated legally, then it should be done quietly...'"

She left occupied Melitopol through the Novoazovsk checkpoint, then travelled through Russia to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Ultimately she returned to Ukraine with the help of her family.

“I know that some people from that labour camp just disappeared and we don’t know what happened to them - if they are alive”, Olena said.

“From this labour camp, there are five people in Ukraine - me and four men.”

Olena now has a second-degree disability due to the inhumane treatment she suffered. However, she still helps search for people who were taken and supports those set free to adapt to their new lives post-release.

Olena puts a face to the tens of thousands of civilian casualties that have been recorded by the OHCHR between February 2022 and November 2024. However, even the office does not consider their numbers to be comprehensive, as the real extent of the destruction brought upon Ukraine by the war is still difficult to assess.

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Express chats with freed Ukranian prisoner Olena Yahupova

The number of civilian casualties reported has varied significantly over the course of the war, with a big spike registered in the early days as the full-scale invasion came as a surprise to many living near the frontline areas. At this time, many civilians were caught in the crossfire, with the frontline shifting quickly and significantly, Ms Bell explained.

Different periods in the last two years have seen increases in the number of casualties, such as in the summer months when fighting intensified, or when Russia launched a series of coordinated attacks in December 2023 and again last month.

September 2024, for example, saw the highest number in terms of civilian casualties since July 2022.

Statistics were significantly higher throughout 2024 due to Russia's use of modified aerial bombs and glide bombs, which, Ms Bell explained, have been refitted with a glider system so they are not self-propelled but can be dropped and float into areas deeper into the frontline.

The use of first-person view (FPV) drones has also increased as the war continues, which allows operators to distinguish between civilian and military targets. However, Ms Bell noted that, at present, Russian Federation forces do not seem to be taking the necessary precautions to minimise civilian casualties.

On October 5, 2023, 59 civilians were killed, including a six-year-old boy, and seven were injured when a missile hit a shop and cafe in Hroza, Kharkiv Oblast. They had gathered there for a memorial service for a Ukrainian soldier. The soldier's widow, son, also a soldier, and daughter-in-law were also among those killed.

What’s more, of the 40,176 civilian casualties, 2,472 were children, a figure set to have a devastating long-term effect on Ukraine.

"Currently more than 1.7 million Ukrainian children are refugees, and over 700,000 are internally displaced. These children have lost their homes, and are often separated from family and friends," Ms Bell said.

As of May 2024, nearly one million children - a quarter of all Ukrainian children enrolled in school - have been unable to attend in-person learning.

“While the government has taken extraordinary measures to mitigate the effects, for example in places like Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, part of Kyiv, where schoolings are being held in bunkers and underground metro stations… this has had an enormous effect on not just their learning but also their socialisation," Ms Bell added.

"These effects accumulate over time, and may cause long-term harm to these children, leaving them with poorer health and fewer educational opportunities. This can also impact the community as a whole. An assessment of war-related damage estimated that future economic losses associated with children’s lower education levels are in the billions of dollars."

Yet, it is the children in Russian-occupied territory who have been “severely affected”, according to Ms Bell.

Children here have a Russian curriculum imposed upon them, are taught a distorted version of history and are not allowed to use the Ukrainian language - measures which Bell highlighted “run counter to humanitarian law, which states that the occupier must preserve the character and make no changes except what is absolutely necessary”.

Ukrainian children born here are issued a Russian birth certificate with a different spelling of their name, and, in September, laws were approved in the Russian Federation aimed at increasing children’s loyalty to Russia.

This includes sending 13-year-olds to summer camps in Crimea, a Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia since 2014, to undertake 170 hours of military training, Ms Bell said. A similar move intends to turn these young Ukrainians into Russian citizens.

A simple cessation of the conflict will not solve the situation for these young people, the expert noted. “War will certainly have a long-term effect on children,” Ms Bell warned. “This has to stop.”

"What would help most would be a peaceful sky over the cities and towns where Ukrainian children live. A sky without explosive weapons.

"In the absence of that, everything must be done to help children return safely to in-person education. That means building bomb shelters or even underground schools, especially in places like Zaporizhzhia or Kharkiv, which experience frequent attacks with heavy weapons."

Do you have any information about Ukrainian civilian casualties or would you like to share your opinions on Putin’s conflict in Ukraine? Please leave a comment below or contact me directly at emily.wright@reachplc.com.