In Luhanska oblast, militants tortured detained Ukrainian blogger

Damaged finger of Larysa Surzhenko (photo: Iryna Herashchenko / Facebook) On July 29, militants in non-government controlled areas of Luhanska oblast released Ukrainian blogger Liudmyla Surzhenko with the impact marks, ‘Ukrainska Pravda’ reports. As the vice-head of Luhanska Oblast State Administration Yuriy Klymenko wrote on Facebook, she managed by herself to cross the checkpoint Stanytsia Luhanska in a grave mental state, after what she received necessary medical care. Luhansk-based blogger Liudmyla Surzhenko (penname in social networks Liudmyla Yasnaia) was detained on July 13 in Luhansk, when she was crossing at the checkpoint Stanytsia Luhanska by the militants of the so-called ‘LPR’. Their reason to detain her was Surzhenko’s failure to follow their orders. Klymenko pointed out that Liudmyla has poor hearing since childhood and uses the hearing device, which at the time had dead batteries. After that, the so-called “Ministry of State Security of LPR” pressured the Ukrainian citizen, including with physical torture (they damaged one of her fingers with pliers) to force her to make a video “admitting” her work for the Ukrainian intelligence. On July 29, they released Surzhenko.