FEARS have spiked that Putin's potential invasion of Ukraine could be followed by an influx of horrific torture dungeons.

Concerns have been raised that troops could enforce a barbaric Russian regime if tanks roll over the border in a bid to keep defiant locals in line.

Civil rights groups claim thousands are currently being held captive by Russia-backed rebels and the mercenaries that fight alongside them.

They are said to be holed up in the hellish chambers run by the Russian President's thugs.

Former nuclear bunkers in eastern Ukraine have allegedly been repurposed as Putin's very own prisons.

They are reportedly headed by Kremlin-backed Ukrainian separatist forces in the disputed region of Donbas.

And as tensions reach fever pitch between the two countries, it is feared thousands of resistant Ukrainians could be banged up in the hell holes.

It comes as a host of civilians pledged to engage in armed resistance if the 130,000 Russian troops on the border strike.

Chilling pictures even showed CHILDREN learning how to fire guns as they prepare for the potential conflict.

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It is claimed more than 200 people – including civilians – are currently being held in the barbaric 'prisons' controlled by separatist groups.

One vile dungeon is said to be the playground of a vicious torturer known as "The Maniac", who uses a surgeon's kit to mutilate his victims.

The Maniac's identity was revealed by Justice for Peace in Donbas, an alliance of 17 Ukrainian human rights organisations, and local media.

Torture – including mock executions, sexual violence and electrocution – is commonplace in the horrific facilities, according to the United Nations.

A UN report last year found torture and ill-treatment were carried out systematically in several separatist-run detention sites.

It revealed that up to 8,700 people — civilians and fighters — had been detained for reasons related to the conflict since 2014. 

I personally spoke with hundreds of people who were beaten, who were raped, whose fingers were cut [off].

Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Kyiv-based human rights organisation Centre for Civil Liberties, said the true number of captives is impossible to know.

She told The Times: "I think we have to be honest and say that we don’t know about the real amount of people who have [been detained].

"We don’t understand the scope of violence and human rights abuses going on in this grey zone where the law does not exist at all.

“I personally spoke with hundreds of people who were beaten, who were raped, whose fingers were cut [off]."

Matviichuk fears if Russia does invade, separatists will roll out a string of chambers across the country to inflict unspeakable horrors on Ukrainians.

Iryna Shylo, 27, told how her mother Natalya has been detained by pro-Russian separatists since last summer after being accused of espionage.

The 53-year-old physics teacher was headed to Ukraine's eastern Donbas region when she was apprehended.

Thugs held her after suspecting she ran a Twitter account that published information about the situation in Horlivka.

Now the desperate daughter fears her missing mother could be left to die if Putin's forces strike.

She explained: "Should an invasion take place, for the people like my mum the situation would become extremely difficult, because then their case becomes secondary compared to responding to the military events."

Access to Ukraine's separatist-controlled regions remains highly restricted in a bid to keep the torture chambers under wraps.

But not all the pain is inflicted directly by Putin's vile henchmen – as prisoners are also simply left to suffer.

Natalia Statsenko, 43, a doctor and mother-of-one has been locked up since July 2019 in Donbas on suspicion of espionage – while coping with an agonising spinal injury.

Her parents say she is being denied potentially life-saving emergency surgery as she awaits trial, facing up to 20 years in jail.

Natalia's father Oleksandr Statsenko told the Times: "She’s held in a very cold cell, she’s not receiving proper medical support.

"She’s in pain. Her condition is critical. She needs surgery … she is already disabled. We are afraid that she might die at any time."

Former prisoners have previously claimed they were subjected to cruel physical torments and witnessed other victims being beaten to death.

HELL HOLES

They are allegedly shocked with electric wires attached to their genitals, have their fingers bent until they break, or are beaten by former boxers.

Sounds of screams are piped through speakers in the prisons as some inmates are stripped naked and left to sleep on wooden pallets beneath blinding lights.

There is no evidence to suggest the horrific human rights abuses are being directly orchestrated by the Russian regime.

But leaked images revealed the bleak and brutal reality of the dungeons, showing torture tools strewn around the cells.

Inmates are also subjected to intense psychological torture, it is claimed.

Ihor Kozlovskyi, 67, was ripped from his home in Donbas in 2016 and tortured in a dingy basement after being accused of being a danger to society and possession of dangerous weapons.

The scholar barely survived his term before he was released the following year.

He said of his experience: "It would be beating, electrocutions.

"The torturers would replace each other, because they would just get tired of torturing me."

The West are treading carefully with their handling of Putin amid fears of repeating mistakes made in dealing with Hitler before WW2.

But their cautious approach has done little to dull the Russian leader's taunts, as an ambassador told the world he "doesn't give a s**t" about threats of sanctions.

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