AFP investigation reveals systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners in Russian jails

An Agence France-Presse (AFP) investigation has documented a systematic pattern of torture and abuse against Ukrainian prisoners in Russian detention centres since the 2022 invasion, based on nine testimonies including from former Russian prison officers, and reports by non-governmental organisations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

At least 143 Ukrainians, including six civilians, have died in Russian jails over the past four years, according to Ukraine's Prosecutor's Office. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said some 7,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war were in Russian hands as of February. Another 15,378 civilians have been "illegally detained", according to data sent to AFP by the Ukrainian human rights office. Ukraine's Prosecutor's Office has tracked Ukrainian prisoners in at least 201 detention centres across 49 Russian regions.

Former Russian prison officers who have since fled Russia confirmed the violence. Sergei, a member of Russia's "spetsnaz" prison special forces assigned to jails where Ukrainians were held after the invasion, told AFP that before the first mission, the head of the territorial group gathered the staff and said existing rules would no longer apply when dealing with prisoners of war. "In other words, he gave us carte blanche to use physical force without restriction. And no one would be held responsible," Sergei said. "The boss told us: 'Be severe, fear nothing anymore.'" Sergei said he refused to take part in the violence and resigned later that year, leaving Russia.

Russian activist Vladimir Osechkin, director of Gulagu.net, said the "system of torture and cruelty" is jointly controlled by the FSB security service and prison authorities, with the complicity of judicial bodies. Nine out of 10 Ukrainian prisoners said they were ill-treated, with 42 percent subjected to sexual violence, according to an OSCE report in October. Torture methods included rape, mock executions, simulated hangings, and electric shocks including to the genitals, according to a September report from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).

Ukrainian marine Yaroslav Rumyantsev, 30, a former soldier taken prisoner in Mariupol in May 2022, survived three years and three months in captivity. "Strong men were broken like dogs," he said. Rumyantsev was first held in Olenivka prison in the Donetsk region, where an explosion killed at least 50 Ukrainian prisoners in July 2022, then transferred to Remand Centre Number 2 in Taganrog in southwestern Russia. He said prisoners were reduced to cowering like "beaten" animals. "Men who defended their land, who went to the gym -- strong men -- were broken like dogs. They destroy them."

Former prison medic Alexei said Ukrainian prisoners in his jail were beaten with polypropylene heating pipes because they "don't break". Victims received only superficial treatment in the infirmary after beatings but were required to say, "Thank you to the Russian Federation for this care." In a separate case documented by RFE/RL, Russian doctors carved the words "Glory to Russia" onto the stomach of Ukrainian prisoner Andriy Pereverziev during an operation; after his release last year he had another operation to remove the slogan.

Ukrainian prisoners are often held incommunicado. Natalia Kravtsova's son Artem, a fighter with Ukraine's Azov brigade, was taken prisoner in Mariupol in May 2022. A year later the Red Cross confirmed he was being held, but since then the 52-year-old has heard nothing. "Even if you're calm on the outside, inside you're burning," she said.

Former prisoner Liudmyla Guseynova, 64, was running a children's shelter in occupied Donetsk when she was arrested in 2019 by pro-Russian separatists for supporting Kyiv. She was held in isolation for 50 days in Donetsk's Izolyatsia prison. "They take everything from you," said Rumyantsev. "They manage to change your thoughts and make you believe that no one is waiting for you anymore."

Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted last year that Moscow treated prisoners "humanely". The Russian prison administration did not reply to questions AFP put to its officials.