Priest from Kherson region who saved a group of Ukrainian soldiers was tortured by Russians in captivity for over 260 days

On the third day of the full-scale invasion, the rector of the church in the village of Tokarivka, Ihor Novosilsky, rescued 12 Ukrainian soldiers who were surrounded on the left bank of the Kherson region. At night, the priest ferried the soldiers across the Dnieper by boat, hid them in the church basement, fed them, and helped them get to Mykolaiv unnoticed. For this, the Russians held him captive for 262 days.

Ihor Novosilsky was detained in August 2022. In captivity, he was forced to learn the Russian anthem and shout occupation slogans.

For almost nine months, Father Ihor was transported from one torture chamber to another — from Kherson to Holaya Prystan and Chaplynka.

The conditions were inhumane: in cramped cells without water and toilets, people slept two to a bed, and they received food only once a day from what the Russian soldiers had not eaten. The most terrible ordeal was the electric shock torture, which, according to the priest, made the prisoners’ teeth crack.