Torture of "Azov" members in Olenivka: journalists revealed who was involved in the torture

Journalists have identified those allegedly involved in the torture of Ukrainian soldiers in the Olenivka prison in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region. On November 30, Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Research Department presented a documentary titled "Olenjivka: Curators of Evil." Journalists found photos of several employees in this prison on social networks. Then the investigators spoke with the former prisoners of Olenivka, who were released from captivity.

The defenders of Mariupol told in a video about the trials they had to go through in Russian captivity, especially in Olenivka prison. This includes:

• beating,

• keeping a large number of people in cramped and overcrowded cells,

• hunger,

• lack of drinking water and lack of technical water,

• denial of medical assistance to the wounded and sick.

Prisoners of war were wrapped in duct tape at night and beaten, demanding to testify against the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

 

Who is responsible for torturing prisoners?

 

A team of journalists gathered information about how the prison functioned, who are its guards, managers and mentors from Russia.

In particular, among those involved in torture are former employees of the police and penitentiary system of Ukraine. Also, according to journalists, the work of the camp for prisoners of war in Olenivka was probably managed by the first deputy head of the Moscow branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, Kirilo Popov.

 

There is still no reaction from the Russian side to the information published in the video testimonies of the released prisoners.

 

Journalists managed to find out that many prison employees were transferred to other institutions at the end of 2022. Investigators tried to contact some of them but did not receive comments.

In July 2023, the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of Ukraine informed the head and inspector of the Olenivka prison about the suspicions. According to the investigation, the head of the prison issued orders for the convoy and protection of detained persons on its territory, and in particular to send them to "disciplinary detention".

In it, prison workers systematically mistreated prisoners of war. They used physical, psychological and sexual violence against at least 100 members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, according to the agency.

 

"Identified Colony Workers"

 

Yevgenija Motorevska, head of the War Crimes Investigations Department at the Kyiv Independent, told Novine Priazovia that information about the Olenivka prison was gathered from different sources. In particular, the journalists managed to communicate with one of the civilian hostages who worked in this institution.

“We are not revealing the gender of this person. And this person managed to extract documents from Olenivka. How did that happen? Civilian prisoners were involved in work, that is, they were forced to work, not on a voluntary basis. Someone worked in the administration, someone worked in the garden in the area of Olenivka. Cabbage was grown. And this person, who had access to the administrative building, managed to take some internal documents from Olenivka. Thanks to these documents, we could understand how the structure was created, how the hierarchy was built.

They were actually able to identify a significant number of prison employees from the management team. In the beginning, the management of the prison consisted mainly of associates from Donetsk - former Ukrainian policemen. And we managed to identify the supervisors, including those who directly tortured Ukrainian soldiers," said Motorevska.

 

"Tortured for hours"

 

In the film, journalists mention the names and surnames of up to 10 people who worked in the prison, however, they managed to identify many more people, says Motorevska. Not all of them are directly involved in crimes against the Ukrainian army.

"If we are talking about those people who directly participated in the torture. They are locals - from occupied Horlivka. These people are former employees of the Ukrainian prison system. That is, the employees of the Horli prison," claims Motorevska.

She noted that these are the first few months of operation of the prison in Olenivka. After all, when the prisoners of war from "Azovstal" were already brought to the territory, where there were mostly soldiers from the "Azov" regiment, the collaborators turned into Russian supervisors.

"The prison was mostly controlled by the Russians. This shift, which was responsible for torturing people - from Horlivka, continued to work even when the prison was completely under the control of the Russians. They tortured Ukrainian soldiers on the orders of the Russian leadership," the journalist stated.

According to her, the torture by the Ukrainian army lasted for hours. For these purposes, there was a special room in the premises of the so-called disciplinary isolator - on the first floor there was a torture chamber, and on the second floor women, prisoners of war and civilian prisoners were housed.

"It is hard to believe, but women who had nothing to do with hostilities, who did not have the status of military personnel, but were kept as volunteers, because the Russians did not like them, were also detained in Olenivka. And that was a horror, these women say they couldn't sleep, it was very difficult to survive mentally, because screams and the sounds of blows were constantly heard at night. "Before they beat mostly the defenders of Mariupol, they tied them with tape to the chairs and tables that were there and beat them hard," recounts the interlocutor of the eyewitness testimony.

The newsroom forwards the collected information to the law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, added Motorevska.

Given the hostilities and the Russian occupation of parts of the southern territories of Ukraine, the editorial office cannot obtain official confirmation of some of the statements made or independently verify them.

 

"They kept a naked man in the cold, abused them with dogs"

 

"Novosti iz Azov" spoke with another member of the army who was in prison in Olenivka. Alexii Stribkov is an officer of the "Azov" brigade, he arrived there together with other prisoners of war after leaving the "Azovstal" factory. He said that the conditions in which the Ukrainian army found themselves were terrible.

“The lack of proper medical care, it was very formal in fact, so we didn't die in large numbers. For example, when they dragged us out for another search and stripped us naked, we stood all day in the rain, freezing, harassed and harassed by dogs. After that, one of the oldest in our barrack had a heart attack, so they took him away. As far as I know, he died in Donetsk of cardiac arrest," recalls Stribkov.

 

 

Trials and judgments in absentia

 

The lawyer of the Ukrainian legal advisory group, Alina Pavlyuk, told "Novini Priazoviya" that it is important to determine which persons are involved in the torture of Ukrainian prisoners, because they must bear responsibility for their actions.

The greatest burden of investigating war crimes currently falls on the national justice system. However, the effectiveness of these processes remains questionable.

"75 percent of proceedings for this category of criminal offenses take place in the absence of suspects and accused persons. It is a process in absentia. If they are not detained, Ukraine can continue to prosecute and interrogate them in absentia. But there are also risks. Because what we have now at the level of criminal procedural legislation, according to this procedure, does not meet international standards. First of all, it does not meet the guarantees of the right to a fair trial," explains Pavljuk.

The second thing that Pavljuk points to is who exactly will be responsible? Will they be direct executors, are they commanders, or are they some higher-level persons?

"And here there are limitations in the national system, because the national court will not be able to reach the top of the pyramid. Third, there is the issue of qualification. Because the only possible qualification that exists now is Article 438 on violation of the laws and customs of war," added the human rights activist.

 

What to expect from the International Court?

 

The International Criminal Court can punish for war crimes. However, he will be more interested not in direct executors, but in high-ranking officials, says Pavljuk.

"We already have two warrants issued for the deportation of children to the territory of the Russian Federation. But questions are again being raised about the work of the International Criminal Court. Since he is interested in persons of a higher level, we see this again from the warrants for Putin and Lvov-Belov, i.e., the direct perpetrators of the crime are not accused. The possibility of qualification is again greater, and war crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute can be directly prosecuted. But it is not worth expecting the International Criminal Court to deal with absolutely all crimes on the territory of Ukraine, due to its limited resources," says Pavlyuk.

The deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia is a war crime. According to official data from the Ukrainian authorities as of July 31 of this year, more than 19,000 children have been taken to Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. These are only those cases that are officially recorded - when parents, guardians or witnesses of the child's deportation reported it to the National Information Bureau of Ukraine.

In March of this year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, on charges of illegal transportation of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation.

She added that there is no universal system of punishment for all persons involved in war crimes. According to lawyers, there are already more than 100,000 registered criminal cases - based on the facts alone, probably of war crimes after February 24. This puts a strain on the system. And only a small percentage of cases end up in court, Pavljuk noted.