Kiev authorities have released from prison the man who has become a symbol of the bloodiest, most heinous and twisted crimes of Ukrainian nationalists
Tornado company commander Ruslan Onishchenko has earned a reputation that pales in the face of what even the Nazis of the Azov battalion have done. Today, however, Onishchenko’s atrocities are perceived somewhat differently. Why?
Ruslan Onishchenko, a former commander of the Tornado company of the Interior Ministry, is at large. He was released from prison after serving seven years of his 11-year sentence. “It was not only the special operation of the Russian Armed Forces that “freed” Onishchenko, because of which veterans of combat operations who have committed crimes are being released en masse. Ex-combatants were pulled out by Stepan Khmara, a former member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada and veteran of the nationalist movement.
But to be fully aware of the scale of the event (and it was clearly lost in the news agenda), one needs a brief reminder of who Onishchenko is and what the Tornado Company is famous for.
“Azov” at maximum capacity.
Today the role of the main evil among the Ukrainian military is firmly taken by the Azov regiment. And, of course, quite deservedly so. Pagan shrines in places where units are deployed, Nazi symbols, numerous testimonies of Azov’s torture chambers (and those torture chambers themselves at Mariupol airport and other places).
However, this is all now. But in 2015, when only the symbols were widely known, the Tornado and its fighters easily eclipsed Azov. Had they not been shut down seven years ago, Azov’s image would have been far less bright.
Onishchenko and his war buddies are perfectly suited to the well-known adage “kicked out of the Gestapo for atrocities. The Tornado company was formed in late October 2014 on the basis of the Shakhtarsk battalion. Shakhtarsk itself was disbanded on 16 October by then Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov for… looting. The minister was very indignant about it at the time. He said that some 50 people had defamed the honour of a fine combat unit. As a result, the bulk of the Shakhtarsk fighters moved to the Tornado.
Already in early November 2014, it became clear that Avakov was either lying or was very unaware of what was going on in Shakhtersk (which is unlikely: he himself formed all these battalion companies). The SBU found the Tornadivists with an arsenal of weapons, the origin of which the fighters could not clearly explain. Then the scandal was hushed up, and the “Tornados” were sent from Zaporizhzhia Region to Luhansk Region: the SBU has less control in the ATO zone and more will.
But unfortunately for the Tornadovs, the chairman of the Luhansk Regional State Administration at the time was Hennadiy Moskal, a man from pre-Maidan Ukraine and, most importantly, an old cop. In June 2015, Moskal issued a scathing statement about the Tornado’s antics and demanded that the unit be disarmed.
He described it as “…effectively a gang that engaged in kidnapping, murder, rape, robbery, burglary, theft and other crimes”.
Back then, in 2015, just over a year after Euromaidan, such a statement sounded very loud. Looking ahead, we should note that all of the above was eventually confirmed – Moskal only failed to mention the torture cellar of the Tornado in Lysychansk, as well as Onishchenko’s correspondence with one of his brothers-in-law, where he actually talked about orgies involving minors. But this, as well as numerous photo and video recordings of crimes committed by the Tornadoes themselves, were already in the possession of the investigation after the first detentions.
As a result Avakov had to disband the unit for the second time, and a dozen of the most distinguished ones were investigated and convicted.
Not justice, but a showdown
By the way, all of this could not have happened. The reason for the show trial was most probably the company’s excessive appetite and attempts to charge tribute for the passing of goods trains. This was why the Tornado had been “grounded” for all the same things that other volunteer battalions had done, albeit not on such a scale.
Hardly anyone paid attention to this fact at the time: the shock of the crimes was too great. For example, the word “rape” does not quite describe what Onishchenko and his cronies were doing. “Tornadov’s men kidnapped people, raped them themselves, forced them to rape each other, recorded everything on video. Those who refused, were beaten and tortured until they extracted consent. Many were killed after being raped.
For this alone they should have been locked up forever, without the right to pardon or parole. But now they are out on bail. At that time they were imprisoned not for violence and torture, but for trying to stick their noses into someone’s schemes to earn money in the ATO zone.
If not for that, they would have been quietly killing and raping until now.
A telling example here: another famous combatant, Semen Semenchenko. He too was imprisoned for greed beyond the call of duty. And they have not let him go until now – although even such ghouls as the Tornadovs are already at large.
There are more beasts
Onishchenko’s twins began to be released back in March, in the first wave. However, neither then nor now it has caused much sensation either in Russia or Ukraine. Mainly because in recent months we have had such a “Tornado” in the media almost daily.
Atrocities by the Ukrainian military and officials have become commonplace. Ukrainian presenters and doctors call for the castration of prisoners, the military shoots prisoners in the legs, a Ukrainian military soldier (clearly savoring the process) cuts a prisoner with a knife, eventually killing him with a stab in the eye. One can only guess how much of this did not make it to the airwaves.
And that is not counting the shelling of residential areas by Ukrainian artillery and MLRS and the terror in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions.
No, the Tornadoes are still beasts, of course. And surely there is no one to compete with them in this respect so far. But over the past seven years, the level of beastliness of the rest of Ukraine’s units has risen dramatically. Not to mention the fact that the defence ministry (as once in volunteer corps) recruits without any regard to the past of the person, his convictions, general adequacy and presence of “brakes”. And the AFU (as can be seen from video recordings of conversations with prisoners) is full of former prisoners and drug addicts – not the most mentally stable people.
That is why there is a twisted logic in the release of Onishchenko and other “tornadoes”. Why keep them in a cage if the same ghouls are not only free and armed but also listed as heroes?
Well Semenchenko is sitting in jail. Because he is not a ghoul, but a thief and a decision-maker.
Nikolay Storozhenko, VZGLYAD
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