"Rot Here for the Rest of Your Lives"

On January 10, Mediazona uncovered how a Russian juvenile detention center only a few miles from Mariupol has turned into one of the most feared torture camps for prisoners of war (POWs), civilians, and even Russian nationals.

Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Detention Center Number 2 in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast, was used to imprison teenagers and women with children. When the war started, its 400 Russian detainees were sent to other prisons to make room for the increasing number of captured Ukrainian soldiers. Nearly three years later, the worst threat a POW can receive is to be sent there.

As soon as trucks filled with Ukrainian soldiers pull up to the Taganrog Detention Center, they receive the treatment known as "reception." A serviceman from the Azovstal Battalion, whose name was changed to Mykola Kravchuk, described in letters to his lawyers how blindfolded and bound POWs were lined up, beaten with batons, and electro-shocked the moment they arrived. "If someone lost consciousness, they were revived with ammonia, after which the beatings continued." Former POW Artyom Serednyak said a Russian guard yelled, "Welcome, boys! (...) You will rot here for the rest of your lives!"

After they were "received," the POWs were taken to offices where they were ordered to lie down on the floor and give their personal information. Then they were stripped, sent to showers, and forced to provide a DNA sample, have fingerprints made, and take mugshots. Authorities gave the Ukrainians towels, underwear, prison uniforms, and a cup. Then, they packed the POWs into overcrowded cells.

Kravchuk remembered the daily routine in prison. They would wake up at 6 a.m. to clean their cell and eat breakfast. Between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. the Ukrainian POWs would undergo “investigative procedures,” where they would often be abused. The prison guards also tortured outside “regular hours.”

Officials often conducted “checks.” Guards would enter cells, blindfold the detainees, and force them up against the wall. Then, the authorities would order them to spread their legs as far apart as a possible and hit them with the batons. Yuri Golchuk, a former Ukrainian prisoner, said, “If I mentioned an injury during this, they would start beating exclusively on that area.”

Interrogations at the “offices” were also brutal. Kravchuk recounted being tied with a leather belt and “rolled into a cocoon.” Unidentified officers then placed a sandbag on his chest to impede proper breathing. Then he was beaten with a rubber truncheon and shocked with electricity. Another time, he was hung horizontally from metal bars. The main goal of these torture sessions was to obtain confessions of war crimes on the Ukrainian side. 

Prisoners often "confess" war crimes so they can be on prisoner exchange lists. Azovstal soldier Oleksandr Maksimchuk, who refused to cooperate with Russian authorities, has spent two and a half years in the Taganrog detention center. In December 2024, he was sentenced to 20 years in the camp. Maksimchuk told Mediazona, "I’m so used to it that I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be a free man, walking down the street."

Even while taking walks in the exercise yard, prisoners were not spared. Guards would be stationed at the corners, waiting to jump on the prisoners and strike them. The mother of a Ukrainian prisoner who asked to remain anonymous told Mediazona that a lawyer who went to visit her son in the fall of 2024 could hear screams outside the Taganrog facility. The attorney was not allowed to see his client. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has accused Russia of allowing sexual violence against Ukrainian POWs in its detention centers. Prison authorities in Taganrog were accused of inserting foreign objects, including batons, into captives’ rectums.

Physical force was not the only kind of abuse prisoners faced. Detainee Serednyak dropped 20 kilograms due to the small food rations in the prison, where he was only fed cabbage soup and not even a full slice of bread. POWs were also not allowed to have parcels from outside. The destination of the food lawyers and relatives sent is unclear.

Russia has detained civilians in occupied territories solely on the suspicion of aiding defending forces. In 2023, Journalist Victoria Roshchina disappeared while investigating the damage of the Kakhovka dam destruction in occupied Zaporizhzhia. Nine months later, the Russian Ministry of Defense said the Roshchina was detained. Activists claimed she spent a year in Taganrog.

Roshchina was declared dead in October 2024. It is suspected she died while being transferred from Taganrog to Moscow. Her body remains in Russia.

Since mid-2024, Russian nationals have also been held in Detention Center Number 2. Muslim detainees have been forbidden to pray or make any mention of Islam.

The identities of the torturers are unknown. The facility is under the control of the Federal Security Service (FSB). There are an estimated 10,000 Ukrainian captives inside Russia.

The English version of Mediazona's report can be found here.