Prison psychiatrist known as 'Dr Death' avoids jail by going to war in Ukraine for Vladimir Putin

A psychiatrist who ran a "torture conveyor belt" at a where more than 20 patients died is now hoping to avoid jail by being sent to ’s war as a medic.

Dr Anastasia Potorochina, 32, illegally tied inmates to their beds for weeks or months, and injected them with mind-altering “psychotropic drugs”. A total of 21 patients died on her “torture conveyor belt” at notorious Interregional Tuberculosis Hospital No. 19 (МОТB), part of Putin’s Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN). Some 43 prisoners were tortured, according to the closed-doors court case where she was convicted and sentenced to five years behind bars.

More than 60 inmates testified about torture in her jail hospital.

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One, Artem Pechersky, accused her of being a “sadist”. He said: “She liked that patients could be tied up for a long time. She would say: 'That's what they deserve', 'Let them lie there'. She made mean jokes. She believed that they deserved to be tied up”.

Another- named Ilnur - said: “She behaved disgustingly with patients, laughed at them, prescribed horse-sized doses of drugs, kept patients tied up for a long time, and they developed bedsores.”

A further orderly said: “She was rude, mean, and abused patients. She prescribed them injections several times a day, which made the patients suffer.” The youngest victim of her “torture ward” was aged 38 and “had no chronic illnesses”, say reports.

Nineteen patients died in a 10-month period under the supervision of “Dr Death”. Pechersky said: “All the patients who died in the psychiatric ward from supposedly ‘natural causes’ actually died from the administered drugs."

Many were in excruciating agony. One of her patients, Roman Mikhailov, died of . Potorochina even claimed to the court that one of her victims “may not actually be human”. She was reprimanded by the judge who told her: “A person with any disease remains human.”

Now the doctor has applied to join Putin’s war, which will exempt her from punishment, quash her conviction, and allow her to keep her medical status.

Her boss, deputy head of operations Alexander Lyakh - sentenced to seven years - has already gone to fight in the war.

Another female psychiatrist Dr Darya Pozdnyakova, head of the psychiatric department, was jailed for six years.

Meanwhile Russian attacks during the 30-hour Easter ceasefire unilaterally declared by Putin over the weekend killed three people in ’s southern Kherson region, a regional official said today.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson’s administration, wrote on Telegram that the casualties occurred over the last 24 hours, adding that three others were wounded in the region, parts of which are occupied by .