Ukrainian civilians whom Russia captured on occupied territories are detained in humiliating and cruel conditions, in systematic torture and threats with death. Most of these people had been kidnapped without reasons or on mere suspicions, and have not been formally tried or charged of anything.

The inhumane treatment of Ukrainians, who were not armed at the time of their kidnapping and do not have the status of war prisoners, has no explanation but Russians’ frustration over their defeats on the battlefield and ethnic hartred, Meduza, a Russian investigative outlet, said in a longread about the fate of Ukrainian detainees. 

Since February 2022, when Moscow ordered a full-scale invasion in Ukraine, its troops and security agents have kidnapped “several thousands of peaceful Ukrainians: aid volunteers, journalists, officials, and former servicemen,” the report said, specifying that it is difficult to establish their exact number as all Russia has classified all war-related statistics.

Prisoners with mutilated fingers. Credit: Meduza

These people were smuggled from Ukraine and hidden in several temporary detention facilities, detention camps, and penitentiaries in Russia. They don’t have any legal status, are denied communication with lawyers or families, and suffer from hostile and scornful attitudes, beatings and tortures.

“Even those who were let to walk out of pre-trial detention sometimes have no clue why they’d been detained or why they’ve been released,” Meduza noted after interviewing former detainees.

How the Russian penitentiary system works

One of the methods to dehumanize prisoners in Russia is asking provocative questions while remaining in uncomfortable or humiliating positions such as stretching legs to their maximum and leaning the head against the wall.

If the guards don’t like the answer or the prisoner is slow to respond, they use batons or stun guns. Keeping silence isn’t a good option too. Sometimes even “the right answer” is not enough to avoid violence.

A bleak lamp is turned on in the cell 24 hours a day and the windows are painted to block sunlight, therefore no one knows what time it is. Every morning, prisoners are woken up by the national anthem of Russia – and it’s turned on so loud that residents outside the prison can hear it very clearly.

Sitting or lying on bed is forbidden from 6 a.m. till the retreat time.

Prisoners are not allowed to look in guards’ eyes or keep their heads up, and during the walk they hold their hands behind the back.

Ukrainians with no exception are “fascists” while Russians entered their country to liberate them from the “Nazi regime” in Kyiv, according to guards. Don’t agree? Then welcome to a new session of torture. Mind choose between electric shocks till your muscles get drained, club hits till your bones crack, fist punches in the stomach or face till you spill blood, or suffocation with a plastic bag till you lose your consciousness.

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“Education” is part of the program. Detainees are forced to sing Russian patriotic songs emotionally, express love for Russia in a persuading way, and endure propaganda lessons to the point of nonsense, amid a horselaugh of guards.

Yet nothing compares with threats of sexual perversion – most humiliating and degrading of all methods of inmate control in Russia; the insertion of a large wooden or steel object in anus is a widespread torture in Russian penitentiaries.

Scenes from camera footage about mass beatings of prisoners in a Russian penitentiary. Credit: Meduza

There are regular searches in cells and sometimes the guards bring trained and hungry dogs, provoking the animals to attack detainees.

Interrogations were held either within the detention facility or in an FSB office, where torture and intimidation continued, witnesses recalled.

Guards didn’t hide their hate towards Ukrainians and truly enjoyed mocking at them.

“Russia is a beacon of civilization and the salvation of humanity. Why are you showing off? a guardian asked me. They were mad simply because we didn’t meet their troops with bread and salt,” said Alexander Tarasov, a former detainee in Simferopol.

Healthcare and hygienic concerns are not addressed and sick people are visited by a generalist doctor once a week or rarer, who only gives whatever pills in possession. People with severe heart problems or chronic diseases that need specific attention have few chances to survive, according to Meduza investigators.

The outlet collected a dozen of stories from survivors, including an elderly Spaniard and a French who lived in Ukraine but never took part in combat.

"They were turning us into hunted animals," Tarasov said.

The full investigation with names and details from life in Russian detention is here. Click the right tab of your mouth to translate the content in English via Google.