A country of prisons and a prison country. How Russia put Ukrainians on a conveyor belt of torture – and who is to blame

On 29 April, 13 media outlets from around the world released articles as part of the Viktoriia Project, dedicated to the death of journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna.

The terrible fate of our colleague prompted many international organisations to respond to the inhumane conditions in which thousands of Ukrainians are being held in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

However, the scale of the torture organised by the Russian Federation is so vast that it was impossible to fit all the information that journalists were able to find into a single article.

In the second part of the investigation, you can read about how Russia created a system of prisons for torturing prisoners, which are considered the most terrifying, and who exactly is involved in torturing Ukrainians.

This text is part of the international Viktoriia Project, initiated by the Paris-based editorial team of Forbidden Stories with the participation of leading media outlets around the world.

Forbidden Stories set out to investigate the circumstances surrounding the detention of journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna in Russian captivity. It also continued her work on the stories of Ukrainian prisoners of war. According to rough estimates, there are more than 16,000 civilians being held in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation.

An in-depth analysis of documents, testimonies and court materials lasted six months. Forbidden Stories, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, ZDF, Paper Trail Media, IStories, France 24, Ukrainska Pravda and Der Standard, among others, joined the investigation.

The FSB’s sprawling tentacles

Dozens of testimonies from military and civilian prisoners and intelligence representatives leave no doubt that the torture system organised by the Russians has a clear structure that has been refined over many years. This large torture machine was first tested in annexed Crimea and occupied Donbas, starting in 2014.

Russia's modus operandi in the controlled territories has been honed to perfection. Immediately after Russian military units enter occupied territories, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) takes over.

Issues related to Ukraine are mainly dealt with by the 1st Counterintelligence Service, the 2nd Service for the Protection of the Constitutional Order and the Fight against Terrorism, and most actively by the 5th Service for Operational Information and International Relations.

The 5th FSB Service is known in Ukraine thanks to a number of investigative reports by Ukrainian and Western media. Representatives of this service have been mentioned repeatedly in connection with the events that took place during the Euromaidan and in investigations into collaborators after the full-scale invasion.

One of the most high-profile trials involving those responsible for the so-called "Ukrainian issue" was the trial of Oleh Kulinich, the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine in Crimea. Our colleague Viktoriia Roshchyna wrote about this case for Ukrainska Pravda.

Read more: How Russia's FSB is fighting against Ukraine: murders, terrorist attacks, moles and cyberattacks

According to the investigation, long before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a network of moles was operating, coordinated by Igor Chumakov, the head of the 9th Directorate of the FSB Operational Information Department, and Igor Kovalenko, an employee of the same department. The latter was considered by investigators to be the handler of pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, such as Viktor Medvedchuk and Illia Kyva.

Moreover, the cynicism of the FSB's approach to the "Ukrainian issue" can be seen in the fact that Russian ruler Vladimir Putin sent Sergei Beseda, the former head of the FSB's 5th Service, as the chief negotiator for talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia in March 2025.

But let's get back to our topic.

From the first days of the occupation of cities and villages after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, local "authorities" were appointed on the instructions of the FSB. In addition, pro-Ukrainian rallies were suppressed, and pressure was exerted on entrepreneurs and public officials who refused to cooperate with them.

"In the occupied territories, the FSB led operational groups. Their task was to identify people with pro-Ukrainian views," a representative of one of the European intelligence services told the project's journalists.

The FSB enlisted the help of security forces to search for "dissident elements". In the first part of the investigation, we mentioned that after her arrest, Viktoriia Roshchyna was first sent to the "official" police station in Enerhodar, and then transferred to Melitopol (both settlements are located in Zaporizhzhia Oblast), where she was held in an "unofficial" torture chamber set up in one of the city's industrial zones.

According to the testimony of prisoners of war, arrests are carried out in a similar manner in other parts of the occupied territories. The captives are kept in inhumane conditions and subjected to physical and psychological torture.

In some cases, the killings of Ukrainians have already been documented at this stage, as evidenced by the investigation titled Shadows of the Left Bank – this investigation dives into Russian atrocities in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast.

Taganrog. Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2

After being held in the occupied territories, Ukrainians are transported to Russia. The most notorious place of imprisonment for Ukrainians in the Russian Federation among human rights defenders is Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 (SIZO No. 2) in the city of Taganrog.

"This is their main rear base in Rostov Oblast, where they first bring all detainees. They have created the most unpleasant conditions for people to be held there," a representative of one of the Western intelligence services told the project's journalists.

Before the full-scale invasion, this detention centre could be described as a typical detention centre in the Russian federal penitentiary system. Minors and women with children were awaiting trial here. Russian media reported that teenagers were studying here remotely alongside other schoolchildren.

In early 2022, several renovations took place on the premises of this detention centre: a dozen cells and a gym were refurbished. However, according to the local public monitoring commission, which was cited by the same Russian media, approximately 400 detainees were transferred from this detention centre to places deeper inside the country. Ukrainian prisoners of war began to be transported to Taganrog.

The first Ukrainians appeared here in April 2022, when the battles for Mariupol were still ongoing. Although the Russians did not comment on this change in the detention centre's operations, it can be said that they were preparing to receive POWs. In addition to the renovated cells which, some former prisoners recalled, were painted with circles and triangles, by the summer of 2022, the roof had been rebuilt – our project partners were able to confirm this using satellite images. 

Our colleagues also analysed data from open sources on public procurement. They show that, compared to 2021, the volume of contracts for the purchase of certain food products has increased. Based on this, it can be concluded that detention centre No. 2 in Taganrog could accommodate more people than the 400 juvenile prisoners already mentioned. This is confirmed by some of the former prisoners we managed to talk to: they mentioned overcrowded cells that could hold more than 10 people at a time, instead of the usual 3-4.

This detention centre is also important because it is located approximately 100 kilometres from Mariupol, so logistically, it could have served as a transit point through which Ukrainian POWs were sent further into Russia.

As of April 2025, Ukrainian human rights defenders are aware of more than 180 places of detention where Ukrainians were or are being held. After reviewing the lists from various organisations, it can be concluded that the Kremlin is trying to scatter Ukrainian prisoners across as large an area as possible: the geography of the prisons is quite broad, ranging from the Russia-Ukraine border areas to Asia, from a temperate European climate to the cold of the Arctic Circle.

Over the six months of working on the Viktoriia Project, we have managed to learn the most about Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2. This facility stands out from other prisons for its rather extensive list of documented torture methods.

Several former captives stated that it all began with their "reception" when they were first brought to the detention centre. Sometimes people were blindfolded, so they could not see what was happening around them.

After being transported, everyone was taken to preliminary detention cells – small rooms designed for four or five people. However, the Russians crammed dozens of people into them. After that, the captives were taken out one by one for "official procedures" such as the issuing of clothing or preliminary interrogations.

They were beaten almost constantly. Not only with fists and feet but also with batons.

Here is what Volodymyr Labuzov,  chief medical officer of the 36th Marine Brigade, recalled about "reception": "For them, it's a sacred ritual. When you're blindfolded, with your hands tied and your head lowered, walking in the direction assigned to you, every scumbag standing there feels obliged to hit you with something".

Afterwards, people were assigned to cells. Civilian captives and POWs were held separately.

Next came "interaction" with prison service staff. Our project has found that there were at least several torture rooms in Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 – from a room with a table and a chair where people were beaten with hammers to a room with a large metal stove into which Russians tried to shove captives during interrogations.

Based on reports by Ukrainian intelligence and the UN, it can be concluded that dozens of torture methods were practised in Taganrog. In addition to beatings, electric shock devices were used on wet bodies, various forms of suffocation were applied, tattoos were burned off with lighters, and threats of execution and rape were issued. People were suspended from beams by handcuffs, and captives were locked in cages with service dogs in freezing temperatures. There are also mentions of a homemade electric chair.

But there's more. One of the most common forms of torture was leg beating. This took place during cell inspections. Prisoners were taken into the corridor, made to stand spreadeagled facing the wall, and then beaten on the legs. These inspections took place twice a day. After such treatment, some prisoners’ legs literally began to rot.

One of the purposes of these torture methods was to force people to sign confessions to crimes they had not committed. One well-known case is that of a prisoner of war, Oleksandr Maksymchuk from the Azov Regiment. During one of the court hearings in Rostov, he spoke out about being tortured. In a letter added to the case materials, Maksymchuk wrote that he was hung upside down, electrocuted, simultaneously suffocated with a vacuum bag and beaten with water pipes.

"I cannot say how long the torture lasted because I fainted several times and was brought round with ammonia and cold water. But when I was put back on the ground, I was told in a commanding tone that I had to plead guilty to all the charges against me," Oleksandr described.

Maksymchuk also stated that the prison guards demanded he ask for forgiveness in his final statement in court from the citizens of so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics for crimes he had not committed.

We have already mentioned that captives in such conditions are kept without any contact with the outside world. Letters and parcels from Ukraine do not reach them and lawyers are not allowed access. Likewise, relatives cannot obtain any information about those inside. The story of Viktoriia Roshchyna is one such example. As part of the project, our colleagues also spoke with Olena from Melitopol, whose husband was abducted by the Russians from their home in 2022. The woman was able to find out where her husband was only two years later, in 2024.

"Since May 2023, I’ve written about 40 letters through the Coordination Headquarters. But I never received any replies. In March 2024, I learned from the NGO Civilians in Captivity that the Russian human rights commissioner had a list of people she planned to visit. And my husband's name was on that list. I was told I could write him a letter. There were specific conditions: it had to be written in Russian, and I wasn’t allowed to mention politics or the war. Where exactly the commissioner was going was unknown," the woman told our project.

In July 2024, Olena received a letter containing only three lines: "I am alive, I am well, I love you. I hope to see you soon".

Olena did not know where her beloved was. Only in April 2024, during another prisoner exchange, did one of the released captives say that her husband had been held in Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog since at least January 2024. The woman never received any official information from the Russians.

Those responsible for Taganrog

Unfortunately, we are still unable to identify all individuals directly involved in the torture. However, we do know the names of those responsible for the conditions in which the captives were held.

First and foremost, it is worth mentioning Andrei Polyakov, head of the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) for Rostov Oblast. He temporarily took up the post in the summer of 2024 and was officially confirmed in the role in February this year.

Polyakov, 54, had served in FSIN operational units for over 19 years until 2019, when he was promoted to the position of head of the prison service in the Republic of Dagestan. He was transferred to Rostov Oblast to replace Dmitry Bezrukikh, who resigned after a hostage-taking incident in Rostov Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 1.

Rostov Oblast is the closest to Ukraine's Donbas, so it often becomes the first to receive Ukrainian prisoners. And it is here that the notorious Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 is located.

Open sources indicate that since autumn 2022, the prison in Taganrog has been headed by Aleksandr Shtoda. Before being appointed as governor, the 44-year-old Shtoda had held management positions in the same prison since at least 2019.

The governor of the detention centre did not wish to speak to journalists.

One of the prisoners stated that the prison warden tried to speak politely with the captives, occasionally advised them to accept Russian citizenship, and even made jokes at times. And although there is no evidence that he personally took part in the torture, as the head of the facility, Shtoda bears direct responsibility for the conditions in which the prisoners are held.

According to open sources, at the time when Ukrainian captives were held in the pre-trial detention centre, senior positions at the prison were also held by Andrei Mykhailichenko, Alexei Sharapaniuk, Andrei Sapytskyi and Aleksandr Kliuikov.

In addition, the project managed to identify over 30 current and former employees of this detention centre. However, when our partners tried to contact them, they were either immediately blocked or their questions were simply ignored.

Local prison staff and "bloody visitors"

The biggest problem in identifying the direct perpetrators of the torture lies in the fact that the captives often could not see the faces of those who were torturing them. During interrogations, prisoners were forbidden to look out the windows, and sometimes blindfolds were used.

The guards wore balaclavas or otherwise hid their faces, and addressed each other using aliases instead of names – such as Shaman, Wolf, Death and others.

However, many captives stated that while daily inspections were carried out by prison staff, other individuals – likely FSB representatives – would come in during the most brutal and important interrogations.

A systemic approach to torture and detention is also evident from the regular rotation of FSIN special units, which the FSB involved on a "shift work" basis with Ukrainian captives.

Valeriia Subotina, spokesperson for the Azov Brigade, who spent months in Taganrog, confirmed that the guards were changed roughly every month. Sources in Ukrainian intelligence revealed that FSIN's special units from Chechnya, Dagestan, North Ossetia and Rostov – with group names like Grozny, Oryol, Bulat and Rosna – were in charge of guarding the captives, rotating between each other.

As one former high-ranking Russian official recalled, in the spring of 2022, Igor Potapenko, head of the FSIN branch in Saint Petersburg, ordered the commanders of the agency's elite units to be brutal with Ukrainian captives. He assured them that violence would not be restricted in any way and that body cameras, which had previously been mandatory for prison guards in Russia, would be removed. Later, similar instructions were given to FSIN special unit officers in Pskov, Moscow, Buryatia and other regions of the Russian Federation.

Potapenko himself is linked to the organisation of so-called "press-houses" (places where testimony is extracted through torture) in the Kolpino detention centre in Saint Petersburg.

In 2024, he was promoted and appointed Deputy Governor of Saint Petersburg for security and migration policy. This fact may indicate that the order to torture Ukrainians was unlikely to have been Potapenko’s personal initiative.

Torturer medics in Pakino

While working on the Viktoriia Project, we found out that Taganrog is just one of 29 places of captivity where torture is carried out systematically, with 18 of them located in the Russian Federation and another 11 in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Human rights defenders provided us with lists of prisons and detention centres where Ukrainians have been or are still being held. These documents show that the Russians are actively using the existing system of prisons and detention facilities – not only on their own territory, but also in the occupied areas.

In terms of the level of cruelty towards Ukrainian prisoners, Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog can be compared to, for example, penal colony No. 7 in the village of Pakino in Russia’s Vladimir Oblast. In particular, Volodymyr Mykolaienko, the former mayor of Kherson, has been held there for three years and at least as of the spring of last year, our colleague Dmytro Khyliuk was held there.

The documents we have show that at least two prisoners were killed in this colony as of autumn 2024. There are over twenty types and methods of torture reported here: people were also beaten during "reception", forced to sing Russian songs, and coerced into inventing crimes they had never committed. Local prison officers are also infamous for imitating executions (using blank cartridges) and prohibiting prisoners from sitting or lying down in their cells during the day.

"You couldn't sit there at all. So you either stand or walk all day. In general, you walk because even standing was forbidden," a former prisoner told us.

He recalls that they were not beaten much during "reception". However, there was an explanation for this: this man was there in May 2023, and on 29 May, representatives of the Red Cross were allowed to enter the penal colony.

"The Red Cross was supposed to come, and we were not badly beaten, so that nothing could be seen [traces of beatings on the body – Ukrainska Pravda]. Everything returned to ‘normal’ after the Red Cross left.

‘Don't think things will be so easy for you,’ they said. 

They beat us during the morning inspections. They also beat us when we were walking. We were beaten if it was a Friday, and we were running to the bathhouse. They forced us to imitate same-sex acts. They could have beaten us for anything, even if we went to the toilet without their permission," Ihor told us.

Former POWs say that both local prisoners and the special prison police, who rotated between the 15th and 25th of each month, took part in the torture in Pakino. Our sources in Ukrainian intelligence said that Russian special forces of the federal prison service from the central part of the Russian Federation, the North Caucasus and Buryatia could have been on rotation in this penal colony. The latter were likely from the Strelets special unit based in Ulan-Ude.

The prison officers also tortured Ukrainians using starvation tactics and bread. 

"They deliberately did not give us bread or feed us well. But sometimes they gave each person a loaf of bread. You eat half a loaf and can't any more, your digestive system can't handle it. But you're forced to keep eating. And then you have diarrhoea and vomiting. Imagine this situation when there are 15 people with these symptoms at the same time. And all of this happens in a cell without ventilation. And the penal colony workers open the food slot in the cell door and laugh," Ihor recalls.

As for Pakino, medical care deserves a separate mention. Or rather, the lack thereof. An epidemic of scabies began in this prison, as follows from the testimony of former POWs. However, the local medical staff, which at least until the autumn of 2023 was headed by Andrei Levshin, ignored this.

"We had large abscesses, about the size of a ten-cent coin. The whole body is covered with such abscesses every 10 centimetres. Their doctor said these mites (which cause scabies) live in the cold. Therefore, these mites will die with us. We were taken out for walks in winter, at minus twenty degrees, wearing only slippers," Ihor told us.

Bakhtiar Zaidullin, 41, has been in charge of penal colony No. 7 in Pakino since March 2022, i.e. since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Those released from captivity also recall the name of Khavetsky, an operative at the colony who tortured Ukrainians. This is likely to be Alexei Khavetskiy, Deputy Head of Security and Operations. Russian human rights activists also mention him and state that before moving to Penal Colony No. 7 in Pakino, he held a similar position in the Vladimir penal colony, where he participated in the repressions against Alexei Navalny.

Some prisoners in Pakino committed suicide because of torture and constant bullying, and some lost their minds.

Bloodstained dishes in Mordovia

Another place with conditions comparable to Taganrog is Penal Colony No. 10 in Mordovia. Ukrainian intelligence is aware of at least three prisoners killed there due to constant beatings and lack of medical treatment.

The types of torture in this colony number more than forty (!). In addition to beatings during "reception" and daily cell inspections, prisoners were tortured with physical exercises such as running on the spot for several hours, squatting 1,000 to 2,000 times, or walking in a squatting position.

However, unlike previous prisons, local staff were likely afraid that someone would still be able to identify them by name. Therefore, almost all the prison officials here wore either balaclavas or medical masks. Former prisoners from Mordovia told us this.

"Here, the officers who came to perform an inspection took an active part in the beatings. You couldn't sit. You couldn't talk… It's pretty cold outside, and you're wearing underpants and a thin, flimsy prison robe that they gave us. We were constantly trying to huddle together to keep warm. But we were not allowed to do this either," Serhii, one of the former POWs, told us.

The prison officials carefully controlled the prisoners' silence. If the guards heard the Ukrainians whispering among themselves, they ordered them to put their hands out through the food slot in the cell door and beat them with batons, wooden sticks and iron keys. Serhii recalls that once the penal colony guards used a ladle normally used to distribute food to smash the head of one of the prisoners. The next 10 prisoners' cells received food from bloodstained dishes.

Serhii also recalls that prisoners in their cells could not go to the toilet without permission. They were beaten for violating this rule. Sitting or lying down in the cell was forbidden, and conversations were forbidden too. The prison officials did not give people enough soap: Serhii recalls that six people were in his cell, and they received a tenth of a bar of soap which had to last for two weeks.

"We once counted that we were given 13 grams of soap for one week for our entire cell. It's not even enough to wash your hands once a day. And the only antiseptic that was given out there was bleach. And so the guys washed their wounds with it as an antiseptic. You give yourself a chemical burn, but you kill the infection," said Serhii.

The prisoners did not know the names or ranks of their torturers, so sometimes, they invented them themselves. For example, during Serhii's stay in Mordovia, he remembers "Katyusha", one of the guards who forced the prisoners to sing Katyusha, a Soviet-era song about a girl bidding farewell to a soldier, a dozen times a day.

"We could sing it up to 40 times between breakfast and lunch. He wanted 11 cells to sing this song in unison and loudly. And you could tell by his expression that he was enjoying it and was proud of what he was doing," said Serhii.

Our intelligence sources have established that two units may be involved in the torture of captured Ukrainians here: Typhoon from St Petersburg and Lynx from Tver. Representatives of the Special Forces of the prison service from the Russian Far East have also been spotted in this penal colony.

Alexander Gnutov, 44, who worked for a long time as deputy head of the same prison before his appointment, has been the head of the penal colony in Mordovia since March 2024.

Penal colonies in the village of Pakino and Mordovia are just a few examples. Our colleagues have assessed that prisoners have been beaten, tortured with electric shocks and subjected to some form of physical suffering in 29 prisons in Russia and the occupied territories of Ukraine.

The Russians used sexual violence, asphyxiation, physical exhaustion and torture by fire in two-thirds of these 29 prisons. The Russian repressive system resorted to psychological pressure and brainwashing in half of these facilities: prisoners were forced to learn the Russian anthem, Russian poems and songs by heart. Prisoners were tortured with cold and isolation in solitary confinement cells in a third of the prisons.

This list is followed by terrible and bizarre tortures. For example, Russians "played" bowling with Ukrainian prisoners, throwing heavy objects at them, in one of the prisons. Those who fell after such hits were beaten further. Or the "wheel of fortune", which was used in another prison: the prison officers would randomly choose prisoners who were then taken to a mock execution.

***

UN and Ukrainian intelligence reports have documented nearly 700 cases of torture, both in individual and group form. It is important to note that as of spring 2025, we are aware of cases of systematic torture in 29 detention facilities.

However, this does not mean that such things do not happen in other prisons on the territory of the Russian Federation where Ukrainian POWs are held. It's just that no one has ever mentioned it before.

The exact number of Ukrainians held in Russian captivity is unknown. Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, stated in December 2024 that there could be as many as 16,000 civilians held in Russian captivity.

On 1 May, Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy head of the Office of the President, said that Russia was holding approximately 8,000 Ukrainian POWS. However, she stressed that during the exchanges, people who were officially missing – that is, those whose stay in captivity Russia had concealed – were also being returned, among others,.

The reason for this may be that the Russians do not provide information about captured Ukrainian defenders, and international organisations are not working effectively.

In addition, there are still missing people who may have been captured by Russia or killed. The Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that this figure had reached 50,000 people as of autumn 2024.

Authors: Stas Kozliuk, Yevhen Buderatskyi, Nastia Horpinchenko
Translation: Myroslava Zavadska, Anastasiia Yankina and Yuliia Kravchenko 
Editing: Susan McDonald