Following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has established a vast network of detention centers, currently holding an estimated 16 000 Ukrainian civilians. The most notorious of these places is said to be pre-trial detention center No. 2 in the southern Russian city of Taganrog. This detention center has become a site of mass torture for both prisoners of war and Ukrainian civilian prisoners.
This is what the “Victoriia project” says — a joint investigation by The Guardian and 12 other global media outlets.
Journalists have documented systematic torture in at least 29 places where Ukrainian prisoners are held: 18 of them are located in Russia, and another 11 are in the occupied Ukrainian territories. The most common torture methods used by Russian security forces are electric shocks, simulated drowning, beatings with wooden and metal hammers, hanging upside down, as well as psychological abuse, such as being forbidden to speak Ukrainian and being forced to eat spoiled food.
Investigators suggest that the abuse of Ukrainian prisoners is a systematic approach by Russia, supported at the highest level. This was previously officially confirmed by the Ukrainian prosecutorʼs office and the United Nations.
The investigation is based on more than 50 interviews with former Ukrainian prisoners, their families, and those who left the Russian prison system because of what they saw.
Violence against prisoners
After the capture of Mariupol in May 2022, the Russian military transferred Ukrainian prisoners, including fighters from the “Azov” regiment, to Taganrog. Satellite images show that in the summer of 2022, when the prison was filled with Ukrainians, it was reinforced with new steel roofs.
Pre-trial detention center No. 2 in Taganrog.
The violence began as soon as the Ukrainian prisoners arrived at the detention center.
“It’s a sacred ritual for them. With your eyes closed, your hands tied, and your head bowed low, you’re ordered to go, and every dog standing there sees fit to hit you with something,” says the chief medic of the Ukrainian Marine Corps Brigade Volodymyr Labuzov, who arrived in Taganrog in April 2022.
Over time, Ukrainian civilian prisoners began to be brought to Taganrog. By 2022, the facility was holding approximately 400 Russian prisoners. But reports of overcrowded cells, as well as an analysis of food supply contracts, suggest that at its peak, it may have held many more Ukrainian prisoners.
According to former prisoners, a typical meal in the Taganrog pre-trial detention center consisted of about four and a half spoonfuls. For example, a portion of pasta had 15 noodles. Sometimes prisoners were given fish, but it was mixed with bones and entrails. Some did not eat during the day, saving their ration for dinner so that they would feel full enough to sleep properly. Labuzov said that the men usually lost up to 25 kg during their imprisonment.
After “admission” to the pre-trial detention center, the violence continued — regular beatings twice a day during cell searches and, most brutally, during interrogations. According to prisoners, the torture included being tied to electric chairs, hanging upside down, being beaten with hammers, simulated executions, and electric shocks to vulnerable parts of the body.
An illustrative image of the rooms and torture in the Taganrog pre-trial detention center. It was created based on the testimonies of prisoners.
The Washington Post
Interrogate
Since November 2022, the pre-trial detention center No. 2 in Taganrog has been headed by Oleksandr Shtoda. According to prisoners, he often advised Ukrainian prisoners to take Russian citizenship. Investigators say there is no evidence that he personally supervised any interrogations or torture. But as the head of the institution, he was responsible for the conditions of detention of prisoners.
The conditions of detention were terrible: lack of food, unsanitary conditions, lack of medical care, constant physical violence. There were no doctors, only a paramedic who did not provide real help. Prisoners died from beatings and lack of treatment. According to Ukrainian intelligence, at least 15 people died in Taganrog, four of them immediately after arrival.
The organization of torture is approved at the highest level of Russian government. Officers of the Federal Security Service (known as FSB) of Russia play a key role in interrogations. Special units of the Federal Penitentiary Service from Chechnya, Dagestan, North Ossetia, Rostov-on-Don were also involved in guarding and torture. They were regularly changed to avoid contact with prisoners and responsibility.
Russian security forces tried to keep their identities secret. Prisoners were often blindfolded, and detainees were forbidden to look out the windows. Guards called each other by their call signs instead of their names. All wore balaclavas or face masks, suggesting a systematic effort to conceal their identities to avoid future accountability.
One former senior FSIN official claimed that the initial purpose of torture was to obtain information that could be useful to the Russian Armed Forces or civilian administrations in the occupied territories. Torture was also used as a tool to humiliate Ukrainians, often with a pronounced ethnic element.
Most Ukrainian civilians captured by Russia in the occupied territories are held without any formal charges for months or even years. Their families sometimes receive a brief message that a loved one is being held “for opposing a special military operation” — as the Kremlin calls the war. Such people are called “isolated”: they are forbidden to write letters, receive transmissions, and Russia usually does not reveal which prison they are being held in.
Most often, relatives learn about the fate of the missing only when those released during a prisoner exchange tell who they were in the cell with.
Lawyers emphasize that Russia is holding these people without legal grounds, because in its legislation there is no article at all about “counteracting a special operation”. That is, this is a completely illegal practice. And access to prisoners in Taganrog is even more difficult than in most institutions.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, as of autumn 2024, at least 15 deaths of Ukrainian prisoners in the Taganrog prison were recorded. This is evidenced by the testimonies of those who returned after the exchange. One of the prisoners died during torture during interrogation, four more lost consciousness and died during a brutal "welcome ceremony" upon arrival. There is no detailed information about the remaining ten cases, but the deaths are confirmed.
Former prisoner Volodymyr Labuzov says that there was never a doctor in the colony — only a paramedic who came, asked about symptoms and donʼt do anything. He didnʼt even give medication. If a personʼs condition was serious, an ambulance was called from the local hospital, but it often arrived with a significant delay — sometimes only the next day. According to Labuzov, one of the prisoners died precisely because of this delay.
In recent months, there have been reports that conditions in Taganrog have improved somewhat and that the prison has likely returned to its pre-war status. However, even if torture has ceased, the very existence of these cells and the mention of them remains a powerful tool of intimidation.
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