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Russia detains thousands of Ukrainian civilians

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being detained across Russia and the Ukrainian territories it occupies, in centers ranging from brand-new wings in Russian prisons to clammy basements.

By Associated Press

July 13, 2023

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Debris is scattered inside a school which had been used by Russian forces as a headquarters and where civilians said they were held and tortured, in Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022.
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A gas mask lies on the floor of a school which had been used by Russian forces as a headquarters and where civilians said they were held and tortured, in Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. Civilians who had been detained said Russian soldiers used gas masks on them during torture.
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School papers and drawings are scattered inside a school which had been used by Russian forces as a headquarters and where civilians said they were held and tortured, in Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022.
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Debris lies on the floor of a building used by Russian forces where civilians said they were held and tortured, in Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022.
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A gate stands in front of a former health clinic, background center, that had been used by Russian soldiers in Izium, Ukraine, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. Ukrainian civilians said they were detained and tortured at the site.
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Seen through a peephole, a sheet covers the window of a jail cell in a police department in Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Ukrainian civilians said they were held and tortured at the site by Russian soldiers. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are detained in a network of formal and informal prisons across Russia and the territories it occupies, an Associated Press investigation found.
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Bars cover a window of a room in a police department in Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Ukrainian civilians said they were held and tortured at this site by Russian soldiers.
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Tape cordons off a police department building in Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Ukrainian civilians said they were held and tortured at the site by Russian soldiers.
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Bars cover a window of a room in a police department in Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Ukrainian civilians said they were held and tortured at this site by Russian soldiers.
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Jail cell doors open into a hallway in a police department in Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Ukrainian civilians said they were held and tortured at the site by Russian soldiers.
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Spoons sit in a stack of bowls at a police department, left behind after the area was liberated from Russian forces, in Izium, Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. Ukrainian civilians said they were held and tortured at this site by Russian soldiers.
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A chair is seen down the hallway of a building which Ukrainian civilians said had been used as a torture center by Russian forces in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Civilians said they were detained and tortured at the site when the area was occupied, and many described being tortured while being strapped to office chairs.
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Sun shines though a battle-scarred wall inside a building in which Ukrainian civilians said had been used as a torture center by Russian forces in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022.
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Light streams through a hole in the ceiling of a jail in which Ukrainians civilians said the were tortured by Russian forces, in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022.
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Electronic equipment sits on a table in a building Ukrainian civilians said they were detained and tortured by Russian soldiers in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Civilians have described how equipment like this was used to electrocute them.
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This photo provided by Ukrainian investigators in 2023 shows a baton found a building used by Russian forces in Izium, Ukraine. Civilians who had been detained by Russian soldiers described being tortured with instruments like this.
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A handwritten calendar is seen on the wall of a building in which Ukrainian civilians said they were detained and tortured by Russian forces, in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022.
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An electric kettle and cup of tea are drawn on a wall which Ukrainian civilians said they were detained and tortured, in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022.
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A prayer and an angel are drawn on a wall of a building in which Ukrainian civilians said they were detained and tortured, in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Those who leave detention say captives endure routine torture, psychological abuse and even slave labor in centers ranging from brand-new wings in Russian prisons to clammy basements, an Associated Press investigation found.
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Olena Yahupova sits for a portrait in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Thursday, May 18. Yahupova, a city administrator who was forced to dig trenches for the Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia, says, “If we don’t talk about it and keep silent, then tomorrow anyone can be there— my neighbor, acquaintance, child.”
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Volodymyr Rykun sits for a portrait in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, May 26. Rykun, from the occupied town of Mykhailivka, was head of the city council. He was taken from his office on April 6, 2022, and refused orders to change the flag from Ukrainian to Russian. A few days later, he was taken at gunpoint to resign, said he was tortured with electricity, and listened as a colleague was tortured as well. He said his tormentors played music as they inflicted pain upon their victims, but it wasn’t enough to cover the cries. He was released after 18 days and he and his wife escaped the occupied regions.
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Oksana Zayarina and Mykhailo Zayarin sit for a portrait in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, May 20. The married couple, from the occupied city of Berdyansk, were detained after Russian officials seized her phone and learned from her Google search history that she’d been researching the city’s port. They were separated at the local police department. Neither said they were tortured themselves, but Mykhailo described a cellmate who returned from interrogation covered in bruises, who was detained because he had taken down a Russian flag. Both were eventually released back into occupied territory and made their way to lands controlled by Ukraine.
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Anna Vuiko sits for a portrait in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, May 19. Vuiko’s father was one of the earliest civilians detained, in early March 2022. A former glass factory worker on disability, Roman Vuiko had resisted when Russian soldiers tried to take over his home in suburban Kyiv, neighbors told his adult daughter. They drove a military truck into the yard, shattered the windows, cuffed the 50-year-old man and drove away. “I think about it every day,” she said. “It’s been a year, more than a year. ... How much more time has to pass?”
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Ivan Samoiduk sits for a portrait in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Friday, May 26. Samoiduk, deputy mayor of Enerhodar, the city nearest to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant now held by Russian forces, was detained on March 19, 2022. He said he was detained as he returned from delivering humanitarian aid and a half-dozen soldiers put a bag on his head and drove him to cell in Melitopol. For 138 days, he was held in solitary confinement, where he said his jailers played music as they tortured people. Then he was confined in a gym basement nearby. He said no reason was ever given for his detention, which lasted 333 days. During that time, he suffered a heart attack and received medical care briefly, then was returned to his cell. He was freed and went to Ukrainian-controlled territory on Feb. 16.
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Viktoriia Andrusha sits for a portrait in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 23. When held by Russian forces, Andrusha was told repeatedly that she would die in prison in Russia, that they would slash her with knives until she was unrecognizable, that her government cared nothing about a captive schoolteacher, that her family had forgotten her, that her language was useless. They forced captives to memorize verse after verse of the Russian national anthem and other patriotic songs. “There was a point when I was already sitting and saying: Honestly, do what you want with me? I just don’t care anymore,” she says.

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