"Beated unconscious, shot in cells": What is done to prisoners from Kherson in Russian prisons

 

During the occupation of the territories of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, the Russian army deported more than 1,700 prisoners. All were convicted in Ukrainian courts and held in prisons, the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of Ukraine reported on July 4. The message states that the former head of "Northern Correctional Prison No. 90" is involved in the transfer of prisoners and is suspected of violating the laws and customs of war.

Human rights organization UnMode, which helps prisoners, reported that prisoners deported from occupied territories in Russia are often sent to court after their sentences have expired, where they are recognized as violators of migration laws and placed in temporary detention centers for foreigners.

Citizens of Ukraine can stay there for months. It all depends on what documents they have with them. If they have at least an internal Ukrainian passport, they can be escorted to, for example, the border with Georgia. However, it happens that prisoners do not have documents.

On August 19, it was announced that the Georgian border guards did not let into the country five former prisoners from the Kherson region, who were taken by Russia to its territory, before the withdrawal from Kherson. This was announced by the publication "Mediazon" referring to Aidana Fedosik, head of the UnMode organization. According to her, Georgian border guards denied former prisoners crossing the border for the first time, and previously complications could arise only from the Russian side. Also, the Georgian border guards then did not let a Ukrainian who entered Russia and ended up in a filtration camp, was released and tried to leave the country. All six men were in the buffer zone of the Gornji Lars checkpoint and refused to return to Russia.

On August 27, the organization UnMode reported that the former prisoners had been released to Georgia. This was confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in a comment for "European Truth". They did not reveal other details from the department.

 

"Left the colony - immediate punishment"

 

"Novosti Azov" talked to some former prisoners who managed to leave Russia.

 

Alexij Zarubin is one of those men whom the Georgian border guards did not allow to enter the country at first, and then let them go. He said that together with other prisoners from the Kherson region, he arrived in Russia in November last year. They were taken through occupied Crimea to Krasnodar territory.

Zarubin claims that Ukrainian prisoners are abused in the Russian colony and on the way to it.

"We had no problems with other prisoners from Russia. We have done nothing wrong to them to deserve such an attitude. Although we didn't do anything wrong to the administration, we are still for them, both "fascists" and "banders", and we are treated that way. "Physically, while we were moving around in Russia, they hit us a bit with batons, and upon arrival, we were greeted by the same "hot welcome", which even burned us in one place," Aleksij said.

The man stayed in Russia for nine months, after which his prison sentence expired. He says he knew where they were taking him, because after being released they all go in the same direction - the deportation center.

"The Migration Service guides you. You have just left the colony, taken two steps towards freedom, and the Russian police have already met you, they take you to the district office, draw up a report for illegal crossing of the border of the Russian Federation, take you to court, and in court give you a fine of 2,000. They don't care if you have money or not. No one is asking you to pay the fine immediately. They are simply taken immediately from the court to the deportation center and people stay there for six months," said the Ukrainian.

 

"Passport of the Russian Federation - a chance to enter Ukraine"

 

Zarubin says that in the deportation center, Ukrainian prisoners from the occupied territories are offered Russian passports.

"This is an opportunity to escape through this "corridor", quickly take your passport and go straight from there. And for those who don't have documents, that's it: you're in a vacuum.

The deportation center is the same prison with barbed wire. You agree, in the morning you will already have a Russian passport, and then the gates will open for you and you will go wherever you want. All of our people suddenly rush to the border in order not to stay in Russia. These passports are taken just to get to Ukraine as soon as possible," said Zarubin.

The man, along with other ex-prisoners, was allowed to enter Georgia after 11 days at the border. Now he is waiting for a document that will allow him to cross other countries and return home.

 

Stuck on the Georgian border

 

Yevhenii Riasnyansky, operational assistant of the NGO UnMode, told "Novosti Priazovya" that their organization is in contact with some Ukrainian prisoners who are serving sentences in Russian prisons or are already in deportation centers.

"When they order a stage, they get a notification after a while: in an hour, two, sometimes a day, and they immediately call us and inform us. This is how we know when they are leaving. And already here in Georgia, we go to the border and meet those who let them go. Of course, people without documents cannot pass. There are a lot of undocumented people there now. They don't have any documents. Either they have them in Ukraine or they disappeared during transport to Krasnodar, from the Kherson region. The passports existed, but they disappeared from the personal file," Riasnjanski said.

Riasnjanski says that recently they did not release those whose Ukrainian internal passports have expired, there is no pasted photo in the document.

"Although before, Georgia allowed any documents confirming identity," noted Riasnjanski.

When the Georgian border guards did not release the former Ukrainian prisoners, the non-governmental organization immediately turned to the Embassy of Ukraine in Georgia, the Ombudsman of Georgia, as well as all relevant departments of Ukraine, according to the NGO UnMode.

According to them, human rights defenders meet former Ukrainian prisoners who arrived in Georgia from the Russian Federation, take them to Tbilisi, provide them with accommodation, food and help them complete all the necessary documents.

They help those who want to go to Ukraine to get a "white" passport - it is a document for returning to Ukraine. Before receiving it, the embassy sends Ukraine a confirmation of identity.

“It used to happen quite quickly, but now it takes a long time. Sometimes it takes two to three months to confirm the identity. We completely take over the translation of passports, border crossing certificates, buy plane tickets, send people via Chisinau, buy bus tickets there, from there they arrive in Ukraine, and in Ukraine they have a full escort to their homes," said Riasnjanski.

 

"They didn't like the pro-Ukrainian attitude"

 

"Novosti Azov" talked to some former prisoners from the Kherson region who returned to Ukraine before the incident on the Georgian border.

One of them is Mihailo, who said that they were with him from Kherson prison no. 90 293 people were taken away. Some were placed in prisons in the Krasnodar Territory, some were taken further to other regions of Russia.

"They told us that we cross the border and automatically become citizens of the Russian Federation, that we must fight for Russia. They didn't offer, they said that they would send us (to fight - ed.). I don't know anyone who would agree. Everyone wanted to go home, here is our home - in Ukraine, we live here, we are Ukrainians. Those with a pro-Ukrainian attitude were not well received there. That's who I am, they didn't like me. Then after a while, after three months, they just left me alone. So when they realized that that was all, they realized that no, they can't change us. First they provoked me themselves, and then they tricked me," said Mihailo.

He also said that the Ukrainian prisoners were told that they were supposedly being rescued from the war, which is why they were taken to Russia.

 

"But all that is not mine, it's Russian, it's not mine, I'm Ukrainian! The operatives there provoked us, they shouted at us that they would gladly kill us, but we were under the control of the FSB. The Ukrainians were under the control of the FSB. That's why they say that their hands were tied, even though they would like us to rot in our pit", Mihailo added.

From the Krasnodar region, the man was transferred to Crimea and again tried to shorten the term in accordance with the Russian occupation legislation.

"I refused this procedure, I said that Ukraine condemned me, I don't want to be tried, I don't agree with this. I said if they want to prove something, they should call the injured party. The witness base, there must be some proof, and then you can judge. I left exactly on time, not even a day early. Then they took DNA, fingers, took pictures in the operating room and took us to the bus station, they told us to forgive them, they gave us 1287 rubles, "live, do what you want, go home as you want". Well, that's all, I sat down at the bus stop, grabbed my head. what should I do? 1,287 rubles is not money at all," Mihailo said.

Through his relatives and other prisoners, the Ukrainian contacted volunteers who helped him to leave Russia via Bilgorod, and from there to Sumy Oblast.

 

"ATO fighters resist"

 

Another ex-prisoner from the Kherson region, Volodymyr Matsko, returned to Ukraine in July and is currently in Odesa. The man told "Novosti Azov" that he was also transferred to a prison in the Krasnodar region of Russia. In March of this year, Volodymyr's prison sentence expired, he was transferred to a deportation center, where he spent three and a half months. It was possible to leave Russia only after obtaining a Russian passport, the man says.

Matsko told how Ukrainian prisoners were treated in the Russian colony.

"They treat us badly in prisons. They are fighting, but our people are not giving up, especially our ATO members (Ukrainian ATO fighters - ed. author) are resisting there. They shout: "Glory to Ukraine!" After that, they are locked up in solitary confinement and sit there for half a year. FSB officers arrive, but none of ours surrenders. There were two of our security guards who tried to escape at night. Their "ensign" was captured. They say that the two of them were shot because they ordered two coffins. To prison number 90," Matsko recalled.

He added that he was a participant in hostilities in 2015, and now he will join the Ukrainian army.

 

"They all went through torture and humiliation"

 

The executive director of the non-governmental organization UnMode Aidana Fedosik told "Novosti Azov" that, according to the data of this organization, about two and a half thousand prisoners were taken from the Kherson region.

 

"They were taken out by auto-rickshaws, Kamaz trucks. 50 people each, like herrings in a barrel, and exiled across the Crimea. There were two stops on the way - Simferopol and Kerch. We learned this from the prisoners themselves, when they finally left Russia. We, of course, recorded all of this.

We continue to record this for the criminal proceedings initiated in Ukraine based on this fact. "We probably filed more than 50 claims under these circumstances that people were kidnapped," Fedosik said.

During the journey to Russian prisons, all Ukrainian prisoners are tortured, says the human rights activist.

"This is a particularly terrible "cinema". We note the fact of murder during this stage of forcible detention. Everyone was massively beaten, there is not a single person who was not maimed. It's just a matter of, say, strength - someone's nose was simply broken, and someone's ribs were all broken, and someone never got up. They all went through torture, humiliation, because they are Ukrainians, if they had patriotic tattoos. They looked for Nazi symbols, and symbols of "Azov", if they found something similar, they simply beat them until they passed out. We had one guy, he was ready to testify, because a person was shot in his cell, and then he was forced to wash it all off the walls," Fedosik recounts the prisoner's testimony.

The director noted that her organization managed to transport 78 former prisoners through Georgia. She says that human rights defenders are doing everything possible, including public publicity, so that the path of Ukrainians who leave the Russian Federation through obtaining Russian citizenship does not remain in people's minds as the only one.

the head of the communications department of the Main Administration of the National Police in the Kherson region, Andrij Kovani, in a comment for Radio Sloboda, noted that the Russian army, before leaving the right bank of the Kherson region, took away not only convicted prisoners, but also civilian hostages.

People were kept in torture chambers set up by the Russian occupiers in the detention center in Kherson.

"We found similar calendars in other torture centers, and almost all of them end on October 20. If we consider that Kherson was liberated on November 11, then on October 20 the detainees were actually taken to the left bank of the Kherson region.

The Russians took several dozen people with them when they retreated. In total, the isolation unit is intended for the stay of 60 people. And all the cells were full.

From the first days when Kherson was occupied by Russian troops, they started using the detention center to detain our citizens here because of their active pro-Ukrainian position. And it is quite difficult to determine the exact number of people who went through this torture chamber.

However, we currently have 300 confirmed cases. We have two confirmed cases of death of detainees in the detention center due to torture. Appropriate tests and exhumations were carried out. And in general, most likely, that number will be significantly higher," Kovani added.

In September 2022, the Russian authorities announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, including Zaporozhye, which were only partially occupied.

Ukraine and the West have condemned this attempted annexation. Kiev, Washington, as well as Great Britain and Canada announced new sanctions against the Russian Federation.

On November 11, 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced the return of Kherson to the control of the Ukrainian army. The Russian army withdrew from the right bank of the Dnieper, where, in particular, the regional center is located.

The Ukrainian authorities declare that they will use armed means to fight for the return of the occupied territories under their control.