A mini Guantanamo, torture on arrival and 695 forms of abuse: how Russia turned its prisons into conveyor belts of death
Artem Yevdokymenko, from Kyiv Oblast, knows what it is to live in complete uncertainty. In the past two years he has been forced into it twice – both times because of his brother Oleksandr.
Oleksandr was a kind and hardworking man who made his living in construction. In autumn 2024, he was mobilised and sent to the 48th Separate Assault Battalion. That winter, his family lost contact with him. They went to the local enlistment office and called his unit. They were told he was on a combat mission.
In early January 2025, representatives of the enlistment office came to see the Yevdokymenko family and told them Oleksandr was missing in action.
That was the first stage of the uncertainty.
Artem later found a video online that gave him some idea of what had happened. Russian troops had thrown a grenade into a dugout where Ukrainian soldiers were sheltering. Three of them managed to get out, including Oleksandr. Although wounded by shrapnel, he helped another wounded fellow soldier out with him. That was how they were captured.
"About five or six days later [after the visit from the enlistment office staff – UP], I found a photo of my brother on a Telegram channel," Artem says. "In the photo, his hands were being bandaged after he had been wounded. My brother has no fingers on his left hand, so there was no mistaking him. He hadn't shaved for some time and was very thin, but I still recognised him."
When Artem received his first letter from his brother from the Donetsk pre-trial detention centre, he didn't believe it was real at first. When he wrote back, he asked several questions that only Oleksandr would know the answers to. The letter was genuine.
In a later letter, Oleksandr said he was going to stand trial for being a member of a terrorist organisation, as Russia designates the 48th Separate Assault Battalion and by extension its soldiers. He received a 14-year sentence: one year in prison and 13 years in a high-security penal colony.
That was when Artem entered the second stage of uncertainty. After Oleksandr was sentenced, the only thing Artem knew about his brother was that he had been transferred to a prison in Verkhneuralsk, in Russia's Chelyabinsk Oblast. Then contact was lost again.
"This prison is thought to be one of the most brutal places. A lawyer tried to see my brother, but she wasn't allowed in. They just didn't bring him out for the meeting," Artem says.
Usually that means one of two things: either the prisoner was not told a lawyer had come to see him, or he was forced to sign a document stating that he refused to meet the lawyer.
A few days before this article was published, Artem learned the most important thing: his brother was alive. A cassation appeal hearing had been held, and Oleksandr had attended by video link. There was an image but no sound, supposedly because of problems with the audio. The hearing was postponed.
Update: After this article was published, it emerged that the next hearing in Oleksandr Yevdokymenko's case had taken place without him. Prison officers claimed he refused to leave his cell, and the court accepted that as sufficient grounds to proceed.
When Oleksandr was still being held in Donetsk, he sometimes wrote to his brother about the conditions there. He wrote about the light in the cell that was never switched off; about prisoners being taken out into the corridor and forced to stand there all day.
After speaking to people who had at least some idea of what Verkhneuralsk was like, Artem realised that the Donetsk detention centre was paradise compared with what he was told about his brother's new place of detention.
The prison in Verkhneuralsk is what is known as a "krytka" – prison slang for a facility where inmates are held in cells rather than barracks. The regime is stricter than in penal colonies. Russia has seven such prisons in total.
The Verkhneuralsk prison has a long history. Disgraced Politburo members Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev were once held there. The Bolshevik Karl Radek was murdered there in his cell. Hitler's cousin Maria Koppensteiner was detained there too. But for the families of Ukrainian prisoners of war today, it remains a black box.
"What do we know about it? That Ukrainian soldiers are held there, mostly those convicted of terrorism and sentenced to several years' imprisonment," Tetiana Katrychenko, head of the Media Initiative for Human Rights, told Ukrainska Pravda. "How many exactly? We don't know. What is happening to the Ukrainians inside? We don't know."
The obscurity of this black box will only begin to lessen when Ukrainian prisoners start coming back from Verkhneuralsk. Returning captives are one of the main sources of information about what Russia does to prisoners. It is entirely possible that Ukrainian human rights defenders will add it then to their map of places with a grim reputation.
No one has been released from Verkhneuralsk so far.
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has documented 259 permanent detention sites in Russia and Russian-occupied territories where Ukrainian prisoners are held for long periods. A further 99 sites are used for temporary detention, 74 of them in occupied Ukrainian territory.
Some of these penal colonies and pre-trial detention centres have an especially terrifying reputation, not only because released prisoners have described brutal torture there, but because Ukrainian captives are killed in these places in various ways
This article focuses on places of detention inside Russia. The Book of Executioners project helped us to understand how torture is used in Russian prisons.
Taganrog: prisoners killed at "reception"
Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, is perhaps one of the best-known places where Ukrainian prisoners are held. It's also one of the most brutal.
At least 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war have died there after being severely beaten and denied medical care. That is the highest known death rate of any detention site in Russia. The real number may be higher.
Mariia Klymyk, co-head of the department for the protection of service members' rights at the Media Initiative for Human Rights, says: "The actual conditions – the cells, food, everyday life – might not be that different from other pre-trial detention centres. But the treatment of prisoners and the level of torture at Taganrog were among the most brutal."
Klymyk says that since 2022, when Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 became the main place of detention for the defenders of Mariupol, it has effectively become a conveyor belt of criminal cases against them.
The vast majority of interrogations were accompanied by torture. But released defenders say it was only in about 30% of cases that torture was used to force prisoners to incriminate themselves. In the remaining 70%, the officers tortured them for no obvious investigative purpose – to assert themselves, and because they enjoyed it.
The torture would begin in the first few hours, during the so-called "reception" – the intake procedure upon arrival. Prisoners would be tasered and beaten with rubber batons, forced into a "stretch" position (suspended with their arms raised), and made to fight one another "until they fell".
The clearest evidence of the brutality inflicted on new arrivals is that at least four prisoners have died during "reception". Others have been maimed. Those who asked for a doctor were often punished.
"One of the most common methods was electric shocks," Klymyk says. "They caused serious damage to the cardiovascular system. Bearing in mind that people were getting virtually no proper food, a very large number of prisoners of war at Taganrog died because of heart problems."
As well as Ukrainian prisoners of war, civilians are also held in the Taganrog pre-trial detention centre – in the same conditions. It was here that Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was held incommunicado – in complete isolation from the outside world.
Kizel: "The women had their heads shaved. You could hear them crying"
In mid-September 2024, Viktoriia Roshchyna was transferred from the detention centre in Taganrog to Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 3 in Kizel, a town in Russia's Perm Krai. She died there only a few days later.
Before being taken to Taganrog, Viktoriia had been held in an unofficial torture facility in the occupied city of Melitopol. Before that, she was detained at a police station in the occupied city of Enerhodar, where, according to witnesses, the torture began. A Ukrainian serviceman named Danylo who saw the journalist being transferred from Taganrog to Kizel told Slidstvo.Info, an independent Ukrainian team of investigative journalists, that "she was terribly thin, just skin and bones".
Mariia Klymyk says large numbers of Ukrainian prisoners of war were transferred from Taganrog in 2024, with many of them sent to Kizel. Since then, human rights organisations have described the detention centre as one of the most brutal places where Ukrainians are held in Russia.
Danylo described what awaited him there.
"They beat me constantly for one or two hours. They'd give me a minute to catch my breath, then start beating me again. During 'reception', I lost consciousness twice. The women had their heads shaved. You could hear them crying."
According to witnesses, on one occasion a civilian detainee was beaten to death during the morning roll call.
Mordovia: a "mini Guantanamo"
Correctional Colony No. 10 in Udarny, a settlement in the Russian republic of Mordovia, is a maximum-security penal colony. These facilities are normally used to hold prisoners serving life sentences or particularly dangerous repeat offenders.
Even the Russians have dubbed it a "mini Guantanamo".
Ukrainian prisoners of war began arriving there in 2023. Some of the Russian inmates were transferred to other prisons, while others were sent to fight against Ukraine as members of the Wagner Group.
At least three Ukrainian prisoners of war have died in Colony No. 10 after being subjected to exceptionally severe beatings. Those who survived have suffered serious physical and psychological trauma. There have been many cases of prisoners attempting to take their own lives.
Prisoners were repeatedly tortured with tasers so intensely that the devices would often run out of charge during the interrogation of a single prisoner of war. Until 2024 the penal colony employed a paramedic named Ilya Sorokin who was so cruel that prisoners nicknamed him "Doctor Evil". If a prisoner asked for medical treatment, Sorokin might beat them with a taser or pour paint into their wounds.
Ukrainians weren't just beaten during interrogations or for complaining about their health or asking to use the bathhouse. They could also be punished for turning down the volume on a radio that was broadcasting propaganda, or even for killing a mosquito during the summer. During staff rotations, officers from Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service frequently set service dogs on prisoners.
In both 2023 and 2024, commissions from Russian state authorities visited the penal colony at least twice. A few days before each visit, there would be a general clean-up, the management would order staff to stop beating prisoners, and detainees would be allowed outside for walks and taken to the bathhouse. As soon as the inspections were over, the abuse resumed and the conditions went back to what they had been before.
Vyazma: tuberculosis as a death sentence
"If we are talking about the places where the highest number of deaths occurred, then particular mention should be made of Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 in Vyazma [Smolensk Oblast]," says Mariia Klymyk. "The main problem there was tuberculosis. According to eyewitnesses, at least five people there [some sources say at least six] died of tuberculosis and the lack of proper medical care."
Former prisoners said victims of the deliberately induced TB outbreaks continued to be abused even after death. One dead prisoner was thrown onto the floor and kicked; another had his body burned with a cigarette lighter. The body of a prisoner who died in January was left outside in the snow for four days so that other detainees could see it from their cell windows.
Particularly brutal treatment was meted out to snipers, reconnaissance soldiers, artillery personnel, members of the Azov Brigade and prisoners with patriotic tattoos. Even compared with other detention facilities, the prison in Vyazma stood out for the exceptional inventiveness and cruelty of its torture methods.
Among the instruments used were a hot iron, vices, cigarette lighters, hammers and table tennis bats. The prison governor since 2023, Aleksei Zakharov, aka "Begom" ("Run"), would personally beat prisoners on their hands and genitals with a wooden stick.
Kamyshin: "You've got a wound? Then don't scratch it"
"Do more exercise." That's what the medical staff at Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 2 in Kamyshin, Volgograd Oblast, would tell Ukrainian prisoners of war who complained that their legs were swollen from beatings by prison staff. Prisoners who asked for treatment for wounds were told: "Just don't scratch it."
Medical staff frequently accused prisoners of malingering. After that, the guards could beat not only the injured prisoner, but all of his cellmates as well.
"We estimate that at least seven people have died there," Klymyk says of the Kamyshin detention centre. "It's thought to be one of the most brutal places because large numbers of Azov fighters were sent there. Wherever defenders of Mariupol are held – especially members of the Azov Brigade – an especially harsh regime is imposed. The guards are effectively given free rein to use whatever methods of torture and abuse they see fit."
According to the Office of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, the Russians hold civilian detainees at Kamyshin as well as prisoners of war.
One such case was Viktor, a 66-year-old civilian detainee who had a category 2 disability because of heart disease and needed surgery. He was detained by the Russians in Kherson in July 2022, sentenced to five years' imprisonment in a trumped-up criminal case, and transferred to Kamyshin.
He died there in May this year.
Kamensk-Shakhtinsky: from torture factory to model prison
Until April 2024, Ukrainian prisoners held at Correctional Colony No. 12 in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Rostov Oblast, were subjected to brutal torture that frequently resulted in severe injuries and sometimes death. At least six Ukrainians are known to have died there.
One civilian detainee died of starvation. Another died from a stroke after suffering several heart attacks following repeated abuse. Two prisoners were beaten to death. One killed himself after enduring regular torture. Another is believed to have died of pneumonia caused by the conditions in which he was held and the complete lack of medical care.
According to former prisoners, Anatoly Kaplunov, the colony's former governor, personally took part in the abuse and torture. To do so, he would sometimes disguise himself by wearing the uniform of special forces officers or ordinary prison staff.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) later requested permission to visit the penal colony. All seriously wounded prisoners, elderly detainees and anyone bearing visible signs of abuse were removed shortly before the visit, Mariia Klymyk says.
She adds that Colony No. 12 was later turned into a model prison to which international organisations, including the ICRC, could be brought to see what appeared to be Russia's compliance with the Geneva Conventions.
Pakino: prisoners driven to suicide and invited to join Russian forces
The Red Cross was also mentioned by former prisoners from Correctional Colony No. 7 in Pakino, Vladimir Oblast.
At least three Ukrainian captives have died at this place of detention. One of them took his own life. Afterwards the prison management forced the prisoners to write explanatory statements claiming that the management bore no responsibility for his death, and that the blame rested with some ICRC representatives who had supposedly said during a visit that their organisation did not deal with prisoner exchanges.
Several other prisoners of war are known to have attempted suicide.
At the Pakino penal colony, it wasn't just the prison staff who abused the prisoners – the management also enlisted Russian civilian inmates to carry out "physical and psychological interventions". Convicts frequently took the initiative of their own accord.
One further detail: at Pakino, the Russians offered some Ukrainian prisoners the chance to switch sides and sign contracts with the Russian armed forces.
695 forms of torture
The Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights says there are 695 documented forms of torture inflicted by Russia on Ukrainian prisoners of war. If this article were to go into detailed descriptions, there would be no space for anything else.
Beatings: being hit and kicked, beaten with wooden and rubber batons, pipes, hammers, whips. Electric shocks: with a taser, a "tapik" (a Soviet-era field telephone), or wires connected directly to a mains socket.
Sexual violence: penetration with a toilet brush, chair leg, plastic pipe, or reinforcing rod. Burning the skin with a cigarette lighter or boiling water. Suffocation by hand or with a plastic bag.
Mock executions. Being doused in urine. Being suspended in various ways: simply hung up like a punchbag, or with a pipe passed behind the knees, a method they call the "moped".
Being made to stand for up to 16 hours a day. Torture by starvation: portions so meagre that even by prison standards they can hardly be called meals. Denial of medical care. Russian patriotic music played at maximum volume for 16 hours a day. No access to fresh air.
This is the range of torture methods documented in just one place of detention – in this case the Taganrog pre-trial detention centre. But the same methods are widespread in other facilities where Russia holds Ukrainian prisoners of war.
"The fact that the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war has the nature of a centralised policy is evidenced by systemic violations – practices that are virtually identical and have been recorded independently in different institutions," the Human Rights Commissioner's Office has concluded.
The Office also highlights the following indications that this policy has been formulated by the Russian state at the highest level: the criminal prosecution of Ukrainian servicemen simply for taking part in hostilities; convictions based on trumped-up charges; tolerance of torture and other forms of ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war; restrictions on access by representatives of the ICRC and other international organisations and institutions; forced transfer of prisoners to detention facilities in remote regions of Russia; propaganda and attempts to "re-educate" captives.
"The variation in the level of violence can be attributed to 'local initiatives'. Conditions in different facilities range from 'relatively tolerable' to 'excessively brutal'," the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner notes.
The overwhelming majority of prisoners of war who have been brought back to Ukraine report cruel treatment.
According to Taras Semkiv, head of the department at the Prosecutor General's Office that is responsible for investigating crimes committed in the context of armed conflict, investigators have already interviewed over 7,000 victims as part of a major criminal investigation into the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
By his reckoning, Ukrainian courts have already handed down 38 verdicts against commanders or other individuals involved in running places of detention. Most of these cases were heard in absentia, meaning the defendants were not physically present during the proceedings.
There have been some exceptions, however. For instance, Denys "Palych" Kulykovskyi, the former head of the militants' Izolyatsia prison in Donetsk, was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in 2024.
But these convictions were of individuals who committed their crimes in the occupied territories. Semkiv says cases concerning the directors of penal colonies within Russia itself are for the most part still ongoing.
"Many of them have been served with notices of suspicion, but relatively few cases have so far been referred to court, since a great many circumstances still remain to be investigated," the prosecutor notes.
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"At least 206 prisoners of war have died in Russian prisons. Most repatriated bodies bear signs of physical violence, denial of medical care and starvation. Inhumane treatment is driving prisoners to attempt suicide." This statement was issued by "Made in Russia, Delivered to Captivity", a joint project presented in May by the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner and the Association of Families of Azovstal Defenders.
The single deadliest killing of prisoners was the Russian terrorist attack on Volnovakha Correctional Colony No. 120 in occupied Olenivka in 2022. At least 53 prisoners of war were killed and over 130 were injured.
Mariia Klymyk tells us about a marine who died in Russian captivity (it is not yet known for certain which facility he was held in). The serviceman's body was brought back home. It bore signs of torture: broken ribs, old bruising, and a symbol resembling an eye cut out above his chest. Yet the doctor had listed the official cause of death as cachexia – extreme wasting away of the body.
"The Russians return the bodies in such a state that the forensic examiner cannot establish the cause of death and link it to torture. So the findings usually either state that the cause of death could not be established due to decomposition, or they list tuberculosis, heart failure or exhaustion," Klymyk explains.
She points to a further aspect that is often overlooked and is not reflected in the statistics for deaths in captivity.
Serhii Dobrovolskyi, a Territorial Defence fighter from Rivne Oblast, was released in the 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap. He only got to spend four days at home. He died in his bed from acute heart failure. Valerii Zelenskyy from Siverskodonetsk returned to his family in the same swap. Less than a month later, his heart stopped. Another prisoner exchanged in 2025 was Ruslan Mamedov, a defender from Sambir. He lived as a free man for only around two months.
These people who died very soon after returning from captivity are not isolated cases. The conditions they endured in captivity had so destroyed their health that their bodies were unable to recover.
"Even young men are being diagnosed with heart failure after returning from captivity. Many have burn marks from the repeated use of electric shocks," Klymyk says. "A few weeks or a month or two after the exchange, people die from severe exhaustion of the body and heart problems."
The Book of Executioners project helped us gather information about the torture of Ukrainian prisoners in Russian prisons.
By Rustem Khalilov, Ukrainska Pravda
Translated by: Ganna Bryedova, Tetiana Buchkovska and Anna Kybukevych
Edited by: Teresa Pearce