RUSSIAN troops allegedly set up a “mini-Auschwitz” where victims had their teeth yanked while others were buried alive, reports have claimed.
A bucket of dozens of gold teeth, caps and dentures were among the haul of shocking finds pulled from a dirty underground bunker that had allegedly been used by the Russian army in Ukraine.
Horror images shared by the Ukrainian military allegedly showed the site of the Russian torture chamber and some of the equipment used on victims in the town of Pisky-Rad'kivs'ki - some 15 miles to the east of the ravaged city of Izyum.
One such item was a gas mask and a smouldering rag used to torture a victim before they were buried alive, Ukrainian sources claim.
“Investigators found a torture room in Pisky-Radkivski village, Kharkiv region,” wrote Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.
“Tortures such as being buried alive and putting a burning rug into a gas mask were reported.
Read more in Ukraine
“A box with torn out teeth implants was also found.”
He also shared a video showing the inside of the enclave – thought to have been used to carry out interrogations on soldiers and civilians.
It is just the latest example of the atrocities undertaken by “cowardly” Russian troops on soldiers and civilians in occupied areas of the country throughout the bloody war.
Their destruction has left a grisly trail of mass graves, with the latest site containing up to 440 bodies.
Most read in News
The grim find comes as Kyiv's forces smashed a hole through Russian defences over the weekend, their biggest breakthrough in the south of the country since the war began.
Counter-attacking forces recaptured a number of towns and villages on the banks of the Dnipro river on Monday.
And at least 31 Russian tanks and one multiple rocket launcher were destroyed in the rout.
As of yesterday, the Ukrainian army was steaming on towards the southern city of Kherson, the first major city to fall to Russia after the invasion.
On Friday, Vladimir Putin declared the whole of the Kherson region part of Russia along with three other regions following sham referendums.
But his puppet officials admitted they have lost control of more territory and troops are on the run.
Invaders dumped their weapons and fled hours after Putin held a rally in Moscow declaring the four annexed regions were "Russian for ever".
Ukraine's defence ministry said around 5,000 men were encircled, and that almost all the Russian troops in Lyman had been "redeployed either into body bags or into captivity".
COUNTER OFFENSIVE
Further advances were reported in Luhansk region, which Russia has almost totally controlled since the spring.
Reports claimed Ukrainians are moving towards the Russian-held towns of Kreminna and Svatove, and some pro-Kremlin bloggers suggested Russian forces have again been ordered to retreat.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the advances in his nightly address, without going into details.
He said: "New population centres have been liberated in several regions. Heavy fighting is going on in several sectors of the front."
As troops retreated in Ukraine, chaos continued back in Russia over Putin's call-up of at least 300,000 reservists.
Tens of thousands of young Russian have fled over borders to escape the draft, and some have even resorted to self-inflicting horrific injuries.
The internal conflict in Russia has reportedly signalled a turn in the tide for “cancer stricken” Putin who was described as "desperate” by Western intelligence experts.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Read More on The Sun
David Petraeus, who served as Director of the CIA under Barack Obama, told ABC: "It can still get worse for Putin and for Russia.
“And even the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield won’t change this at all."