Ukraine war: 'They were raping girls here and killing and beating men'

The gates swing open, creaking ominously on their hinges.

This is the first time Valery has been back to the prison where the Russians took him.

As he walks through the gates he points out the cell on the second floor where he was locked up.

And when he recounts what happened here it's clear that it is a painful experience.

'Every day people were tortured'

"In the 20 cells, there were more than 180 prisoners. Every day people were tortured," Valery says.

"If you get inside the prison and see what they have written on the walls you will see how much they hated us."

Valery was a successful businessman before he was arrested when he resisted as soldiers stole his trucks from his factory.

What the Russians didn't know was their crimes were recorded on CCTV as they looted his office and drove away with his vehicles.

'This is hard for me'

He shows me the images on his phone. They clearly show the soldiers filling bags with valuables and computing equipment.

When they left they smashed everything up.

Each image is dated - it all happened in March shortly after the invasion when they captured Kherson city.

On the walls of the prison graffiti reads "Zelenskyy we are coming".

But surprisingly Valery considers himself lucky as, he says, other inmates were tortured far worse.

"They were tortured severely. They were electrocuted. They were suffocating people in water. They cut people. They were doing things that I can't imagine how any human being could do. We were praying that Ukraine would return to Kherson as soon as possible.

"Please forgive me. This is hard for me. It's difficult, very difficult. Please forgive me."

What happened in this building during the Russian occupation is only now coming to light.

Andrei from the apartment block next door told Valery the residents could also hear the screams.

"I heard everything, it was terrifying.

"They were raping girls here. Then they brought men here and were beating them and killing them."

City in trauma

The pain of the Russian occupation is everywhere - this is a city still coming to terms and dealing with collective trauma.

Every day the queues for water get longer, a miserable wait in the biting cold.

Power is hard to come by.