I was held captive by Russian troops – Putin’s torturers tasered me, performed mock execution & blasted AC/DC non-stop
A BRIT aid worker has told of the torture he endured at the hands of Russian troops in Ukraine - who tasered him, performed mock executions and blasted AC/DC non-stop.
Dylan Healy, 22, was ambushed on an aid mission in Ukraine and forced to spend weeks in a dingy Russian cell where he was beaten and tortured daily.
He and 45-year-old Paul Urey were travelling from Odessa to Zaporizhzhia when their convoy was stopped at a Russian checkpoint and forced to kneel by the roadside and fired on in a hoax execution.
The brave Brits, who were carrying out vital aid work, were then bundled into cells the size of a single mattress and subjected to unspeakable torture.
Dylan would make it out alive in a prisoner swap but Paul would sadly die at the hands of his Russian captors on July 10.
The freed Brit told the Sunday Mirror he and Paul were shouted at every time they fell asleep and were regularly dragged out at the middle of the night and shot at in sick mock executions.
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"All the gunman had to do was pull the trigger and we were gone," he told the paper.
"We were silent. He asked us if we had any last words and we said no. Then he fired a shot into the mud in the middle of the two of us. Paul went, ‘That was a close one’".
Paul's captors cited "stress and medical reasons" for this death but Ukraine suggests his body showed signs of torture.
Dylan - who left the UK to join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, only to leave it shortly afterwards - said he and Paul embarked on a 460-mile journey from Odessa to Zaporizhzhia to rescue a mum and two kids when they were captured in May.
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They were 30 minutes away from their destination when they were stopped by a guard after passing a Russian checkpoint.
He and Paul were ordered from their vehicle, cuffed, had bags put over their heads and taken to a prison near Mariupol.
They were placed in separate cells and tortured for days on end by the FSB, Russia's secret service.
"There was no panic, I was resigned. I didn’t want to cry because it wasn’t going to change it," Dylan explained.
"They shouted at you if you slept. They waterboarded me. They put me on a table, put a rag in my mouth and poured water in until I was choking.
"When I spoke to Paul he said this hadn’t happened to him. They wanted to know how we’d got behind the lines and why – and if we were British spies.
"There were regular beatings, every day. They had old-style police batons and my ribs were broken."
He said the Russians had "a love of tasering" and would stick long prongs into their skin.
They had heavy metal music like AC/DC, Rammstein and Slipknot blasted at them in four-hour loops.
Two weeks later they were moved to a prison in Makiivka where they were given toothbrushes and were allowed to watch football - it's also where they met fellow captured Brits Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner.
They were there when Aiden and Shaun were sentenced to death.
"I knew we were in a bad situation and the verdicts did not come as a surprise," Dylan said.
"Shaun is a good person to try and rationalise things with. Like me, he doesn’t really cry. We got through with the stereotypical British humour."
There were regular beatings, every day. They had old-style police batons and my ribs were broken
Dylan Healy
On July 8, Dylan and Paul were wheeled out of their cells and forced to sign a false confession to "minimise risk to ourselves".
Dylan was told he received 14 years in jail and the death penalty, while Paul faced seven years and was tortured on the way back to their cells.
"They did something to make him scream for 10, 20 seconds," Dylan said.
"I don’t think I’ll ever hear someone scream like that again. That was the last time I saw Paul alive."
Two days later, Paul began coughing and choking.
"At that point we said, 'Paul's dead'," said Dylan.
"I couldn’t take it in. He was a very good friend – I honestly would have swapped with him straight away."
In September, Dylan was "cuffed, bagged and gagged" and forced into a vehicle with 30 others for 18 hours.
He feared he would finally be executed and surprised when he found himself at a Russian airstrip being greeted by representatives from Saudi Arabia who told him he was safe.
He was flown via Saudi Arabia to Heathrow and reunited with his parents and labradoodle Arthur.
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He is still processing his ordeal.
"I can’t shake the sense of hyper awareness. I spent five months noticing every little change – so I’m struggling to sleep," he told the Sunday Mirror.
