Ukrainian Activist Says He Was Forced to Admit Being a US Spy

Was tortured until he agreed to "confess" on video

A Ukrainian anti-government activist who fled the country after being abducted said on Thursday he had been forced under torture to declare himself an American spy.

Dmytro Bulatov, leader of a protest group known as Automaidan, said his kidnappers forced him to say on camera that he had accepted money from the U.S. Embassy to organize anti-government protests in Ukraine.

"I was telling them lies just to stop the torture… At one point I asked them to kill me because I couldn't stand it any more," said the 35-year-old, speaking at the Vilnius University Emergency Hospital in Lithuania where he is being treated after leaving Ukraine on Sunday.