Torture prisons in Donbass: “They begged for it to stop”

Prisoners of war are said to have been tortured and burned alive in the Olenivka prison camp. Human rights activists have suspected dozens of torture prisons in the occupied Donbass for years – not just for prisoners of war.

They didn’t want to surrender for a long time. The Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov steelworks were convinced that being a prisoner of war meant certain death. Many Ukrainian soldiers share this belief. That’s why some always carry a hand grenade with them. Because then they can take their own lives before they fall into Russian captivity. Still better than being tortured to death, many say.

Former inmate reports from prison camp

Torture is also said to have taken place in Olenivka, the prison camp where 50 Ukrainian soldiers were partially burned in their metal beds, reports Anna Vorozheva. She herself was imprisoned in Olenivka for more than three months. She tells of brutal guards who were given nicknames by the inmates. It was a real punishment command, she says. “They made the prisoners crawl out of their cells on a crouch. They had to walk in single file, hands behind their heads, 100 to 120 meters to a room. There they were brutally beaten.”

Ukraine: Russia tried to cover up torture

Ukraine accuses Russia of deliberately detonating an explosive device in a prison camp building to cover up systematic torture. Russia, on the other hand, accuses Ukraine of targeting the prison. Independent investigators have not yet been admitted to the site.

However, the human rights activists at the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties had known about the prison in Olenivka for years. The name appears in a 2015 report on torture prisons in occupied Donbass. The activists were able to identify more than 70 such places; some of these places were only under the control of the so-called separatists for a short period of time.

Dozens of prisons like Olenivka

According to human rights activist Oleksandra Matviychuk, there are said to be dozens of detention centers in the areas occupied by Russia. In all these illegal detention centers, torture and inhumane treatment are widespread. “I spoke to hundreds of survivors and they told me how they were beaten, how they were raped, how their fingers were cut off, how they were locked in wooden boxes, how they were tortured with electricity.” A woman told her that her eyes had been gouged out with a spoon.

The vast majority of these detention centers are located in law enforcement or military basements – some in factories or hotels. Internationally known is the Isolazija prison – built on the territory of a factory for insulating materials in Donetsk.

Human rights activist reports on slavery

After occupying parts of the Donetsk region, the pro-Russian separatists set up a military base here and made the prisoners work for them, human rights activist Matviychuk explains. Men and women were held captive in a prison camp there for years and used “like slaves”. “They had to serve the military base, digging trenches, for example.”

Systematic torture?

Olenivka is just another example of an apparently systematic practice. According to Matviychuk, terror and torture are targeted tools used by the Russian occupying forces and their henchmen to maintain control over the population.

This allegation is supported by the stories of other former inmates. Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Assyev was imprisoned in Isolaziya prison for more than two years. He also reports severe torture. Some of his fellow prisoners were supporters of the so-called separatists, he reports on a Ukrainian talk show.

“In 2017 and 2018, I sat with representatives of all military ranks. From major generals to privates, with members of almost all brigades and battalions,” says Asseyev. “Half of the inmates are locals, the so-called separatists. The other half can be anyone.”

In 2014, Russia initially took action against an active part of society

Observers say that when Russian-backed troops took power in parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014, they initially targeted the active section of society. Against journalists like Asjejev, against activists, but also against religious leaders and politicians. Some of them are killed, others disappear into the basements of Donetsk and Luhansk.

But even years later, the arrests don’t seem to have stopped. The reason for this: The power structure of the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, explains journalist Illia Ponomarenko: “These are criminal enclaves controlled by criminalized groups of so-called separatists.”

It’s also about a war between gangsters for control of territories and money. There were wars over the most profitable businesses or companies. “Anyone who owns a business that someone else wants can be arrested. There can be many reasons for an arrest. This is the wild west,” says Ponomarenko.

International organizations do not have access

Once imprisoned, those affected are considered virtually defenseless. International organizations or independent observers have not been allowed access to the detention centers in the Russian-occupied territories for years. Even for relatives, there is hardly any possibility of finding missing relatives and contacting them. Human rights activists are now reporting that Russian troops are using the same system again – in the newly occupied areas of southern Ukraine.