Yesterday, an unknown assailant attacked a lawyer in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
The Lawyer has been representing Russian soldiers who were tortured during their military service in Ukraine. The incident was reported on Saturday by the Russian Telegram news channel Astra.
The lawyer, who has chosen to remain anonymous, told Astra that she was walking her dog when a man in military uniform approached her.
"Some big guy came up to me and knocked into me with his shoulder. Then he punched me in the face and in the ribs. The only thing he said was: ‘You know why’,” she recounted.
Fearing for her safety, the lawyer grabbed her dog and ran to the entrance of a nearby building, managing to slam the door behind her as the attacker continued to bang on it.
The lawyer, who plans to report the incident to the police, later visited an emergency room, where doctors documented bruising on her face and ribs.
She believes the attack was directly related to her work defending soldiers who were tortured by units of the Russian army, specifically the 5th and 110th brigades, at the Petrovskaya Coal Mine in Donetsk.
Just a day before the attack, Astra published an investigation into the so-called "torture basement" at the mine.
The report detailed horrific abuses, including soldiers being thrown into pits, beaten, urinated on, and subjected to electric shocks. The investigation also revealed that pro-Kremlin American blogger Russell Bentley, who had collaborated with the state agency Sputnik, was tortured and killed at this location in April.
The Petrovskaya Coal Mine is one of 17 illegal torture sites identified by Astra in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
