"A Ukrainian opposition activist who went missing last week says he was kidnapped, crucified and had part of his ear cut off in the latest attack on an anti-government protester.
Dmytro Bulatov, 35, a member of Automaidan, a group of car owners that has taken part in the protests against President Viktor Yanukovych, went missing January 22.
He was discovered outside Kiev yesterday and told rescuers that his kidnappers kept him in the dark for more than a week, beat him severely, nailed him to a cross and sliced off a piece of ear, before eventually dumping him in a forest.
'They crucified me, they nailed down my hands. They cut off my ear, they cut my face. There isn't a spot on my body that hasn't been beaten...Thank God I am alive,' Bulatov told Ukraine's Channel 5...
Bulatov is among three activists whose disappearances have shocked the country, especially after one of them was found dead.
He went missing one day after Igor Lutsenko, another prominent opposition activist, who was discovered after being taken to the woods and beaten severely by unknown attackers.
Lutsenko was kidnapped from a hospital, where he had brought a fellow protester, Yuri Verbitsky, to be treated for an eye injury. Verbitsky was also beaten severely and was later discovered dead."