1,000 prisoners at the Kopychyntsi colony in the Ternopil region are threatening mass suicide!
Prisoners at Kopychyntsi Correctional Colony No. 112 are shouting “SOS!” – this morning, their relatives received alarming messages on their phones regarding the mass beating of convicts.
As “Pohliad” has learned, special forces troops arrived at the colony a few days ago. This morning, due to their efforts, nine beaten men were lying on the ground in the punishment cells. As a sign of protest, more than 30 prisoners slashed their wrists.
“Pohliad” has been unable to ascertain what is actually happening in Kopychyntsi. The colony’s management is providing no explanations.
The head of the Department of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine in the Ternopil region, Pavlo Losyk, is currently in Lutsk. In a conversation with a journalist, he assured them that the situation is under control and promised to bring media representatives to the colony on Monday.
According to the latest information, special forces from Lviv, Zhytomyr, and Ternopil are currently in the prison.
If the beatings do not stop, the prisoners of the colony (numbering over 1,000) are threatening mass suicide.
However, the official website of the Department of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine in the Ternopil region states that between 26 and 27 July, tactical and special exercises were held at the Kopychyntsi Correctional Colony (No. 112) for the combined detachment of rapid response groups from regional penal institutions, with the involvement of the special forces unit of the Department of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine in the Zhytomyr region.
The exercises were conducted for the purpose of practising actions in the event of an emergency, such as mass riots among convicts, as well as the organisation and execution of search operations in penal institutions.
In accordance with regulatory and legal acts, personnel were assembled at the institution upon the conditional signal “Storm.” The training began with the rapid response groups practising elements of search operations in order to detect objects prohibited for use by convicts within the protected zone, which allowed for the seizure of 0.5 litres of homebrew mash and 1 (one) mobile phone within the protected zone.
Furthermore, during the tactical and special exercises, members of the combined rapid response detachment demonstrated hand-to-hand combat techniques both with and without weapons, which enabled the personnel to reinforce their theoretical skills.
Following the demonstration of the tactical and special exercises, the performance of the personnel and the combined detachment was rated as “excellent.”
Journalists are now trying to find out upon whom the special forces unit was actually practising their hand-to-hand combat skills, and who received the “excellent” rating and for what actions.
Ternopil News “Pohliad”