A Ukrainian protester whose account of torture has shocked Europe has arrived in Lithuania hours after a Kiev court ruled that he could leave the country for treatment.
Dmytro Bulatov left Ukraine on Sunday following intense pressure by Western leaders after he appeared on television, his face swollen and caked in blood, and said he had been kidnapped and tortured over his role in protests that have rocked the country.
Bulatov is a leader of the "Automaidan" movement, which has organised protest motorcades outside President Viktor Yanukovych's sprawling country estate near Kiev and has been targeted by police.
The 35-year-old father of three said he was "crucified" by unidentified kidnappers who drove nails through his hands and cut off part of his ear while they held him for eight days following clashes in Kiev.
"They crucified me, nailed me, cut my ear off, cut my face," Bulatov said on Channel 5 television shortly after his release in his only public comments so far.
"I can't see well now, because I sat in darkness the whole time."
His bloodied face sparked outrage, with the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton saying she was "appalled by the obvious signs of prolonged torture".
The United Nations and the United States also voiced concern and Germany and Lithuania both offered him medical assistance.
An ambulance took Bulatov directly from Vilnius airport to a hospital in the city after he arrived late Sunday by air from Kiev via Latvia.
Lithuania, an ex-Soviet Baltic state, vowed last month to provide free medical assistance to Ukrainians injured in violent protests in Kiev, and Bulatov will be the third to take up the offer.
"We are ready to help all injured Ukrainians, and we do not separate them into opposition and others in this case," Lithuanian Health Minister Vytenis Andriukatis told AFP on Sunday.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara on Saturday dismissed Bulatov's account and said his injuries were just "a scratch", but the ministry retracted the comments saying they wished him a "speedy recovery".
The interior ministry said it was looking into his disappearance but asserted that the injuries may have been "staged" and a criminal investigation into his role in the anti-Yanukovych protests is ongoing.
