Ukrainians obtain secret messages detailing routine torture of prisoners and slaughter of soldiers

Antonia Langford in Kyiv

Antonia Langford is a Freelance Journalist, based in Kyiv. She writes for The Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Times, among others. She is also the Evening News Manager at The Kyiv Post. She covers Ukraine and Russia. Antonia was shortlisted for Best Early Career Journalist in the Freelance Journalist Awards 2025.

20 February 2026

A decorated Russian general boasted to his wife about torturing and murdering captive Ukrainians in messages revealed by journalists.

Roman Demurchiev, 49, shared graphic descriptions of abuses of Ukrainian prisoners, apparently committed by him and his subordinates, including severing their ears.

The messages, from 2022 to 2024, were obtained from a source in the Ukrainian army and verified by journalists from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Systema and Skhemy investigative units.

In texts from October 2022, Demurchiev said he had captured four Ukrainians in a three-day assault on a “stronghold” and accompanied the message with a picture of severed, blackened human ears hanging from a metal pipe.

“What are you going to do with them?” his wife, Alexandra, asked when he forwarded the photo.

“I’ll string them into a garland and give them as a gift,” he responded.

“Like pig ears to go with beer,” she quipped.

The Russian general also appeared to describe shooting and “disposing” of prisoners, documenting the crimes in photographs and videos which he shared with colleagues and members of his circle.

Demurchiev has attended meetings with senior command in the army and received an award for “heroic deeds” from the Moscow regional governor in 2023, as well as one of the highest state decorations of the Chechen Republic.

The same year, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, promoted him to major general.

Although Demurchiev’s current posting is unknown, as of December 2024, he was serving as deputy commander of Russia’s 20th Combined Arms Army.

In one message believed to be addressed to a military counter-intelligence officer, Demurchiev said: “I have a prisoner here, I can gift him to you. There’s one sitting there in a pit. What should I do with him, dispose of him or hand him over to you?

“We didn’t have time to torture him… but you’ve got plenty of time,” the general added.

The prisoner in question, identified as a 40-year-old volunteer from Zaporizhzhia, was later exchanged after spending a year and 10 months in captivity.

Speaking through relatives, he told journalists he was still psychologically unable to talk directly about what happened to him there. His relatives revealed he had been severely beaten and tortured with electric shocks.

“There was another one. Didn’t make it. Little bastard,” Demurchiev said to the counter-intelligence officer.

In another exchange, the two discussed using detainees who “cannot be handed over” as “trench diggers” then “leaving them there. Forever”.

On another occasion, Demurchiev appeared to boast to his superior, General Oleg Mitiaev, about his subordinates hacking several captured Ukrainian soldiers to death with shovels.

“Submit them for awards,” Mitiaev retorted.

The Ukrainian unit in question confirmed the execution of its troops, which took place near Makiivka, in the Donetsk region, when contacted by journalists.

They asked that the names of the deceased or any identifying information not be disclosed to avoid further traumatising their families.

Demurchiev shared a meme with a fellow general reading: “It’s not a war crime if you had fun” and received videos from colleagues depicting “mouse torture”, videos of crucified live mice being “questioned” via voice-over.

Human rights bodies, based on harrowing testimonies from exchanged prisoners since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have revealed a systemic pattern of physical, psychological and sexual torture of Ukrainian captives by the Russian military and authorities throughout every stage of their detention.

The head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has said that 95 per cent of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russia face torture and other atrocities.

The severing of ears and other body parts has emerged as a prominent method of torture. In March 2024, videos circulating on Russian Telegram channels showed Russian security services slicing off the ear of a suspect in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack and shoving it into his mouth, demanding that he eat it.

The practice first came to light during the Chechen wars, when journalists and human rights activists revealed a pattern of mutilation of bodies by the Russian military, including severed ears.

In a 1996 report by Alexander Nevzorov, a television journalist, Russian soldiers showed these “trophies” on camera.

“It’s hard to find a [Russian army] scout who doesn’t have a dried Chechen ear tucked into his sleeve pocket,” Nevzorov told viewers at the time.