Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, thousands of citizens of the country have been held in prisons in Russia, and hundreds of children have been forcibly deported from occupied territories to the territory of Russia.
This is reported by Kyiv24
The complex process of returning Ukrainian citizens home continues, alongside preparations to hold Russian criminals accountable for the committed crimes against humanity.
Documenting Russia’s War Crimes
Ukrainian special services are actively collecting evidence of war crimes committed by Russian servicemen and their accomplices on the territory of Ukraine. The Security Service of Ukraine is identifying individuals involved in violence against civilians, destruction of infrastructure, and violations of international warfare norms. The collected materials are submitted to national and international courts, including the International Criminal Court, to ensure that every criminal is punished according to the law.
Identification of Prison Guards and Creation of a Registry
In collaboration with the Security Service of Ukraine, analysts from the Molfar Intelligence Institute have begun detailed work to identify individuals involved in the detention and torture of Ukrainian captives in Russian prisons and in temporarily occupied territories. As of August 2025, 144 employees from various detention facilities have already been identified, and their names have been provided by Ukrainian special services for further analytical processing.
The list includes employees from the following institutions: Colony No. 36 in Sukhodilsk (occupied Luhansk region), Colony No. 38 in Sverdlovsk (Dovzhansk), Colony No. 27 in Horlivka (occupied Donetsk region), Donetsk Detention Center (occupied Donetsk), VK No. 2 in the town of Donskoye, Tula region of Russia, Detention Center No. 2 in Stary Oskol, Belgorod region of Russia, and Detention Center No. 2 in Taganrog, Rostov region of Russia.
The highest number of identified prison guards has been recorded at the Taganrog detention center. Among the known cases is the detention of journalist Viktoria Roshchyna in this facility.
Tatyana Katrychenko, Executive Director of the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), notes that in Taganrog – “… one of the most brutal places of detention for Ukrainians on the territory of the Russian Federation. It is referred to as hell on earth. In particular, Azov fighters from Azovstal are held in Taganrog. Those released recount horrific torture. There, everyone whom they want to make criminals confesses to crimes – they incriminate themselves. They are then transferred to Rostov and put on trial.”
Despite the fact that prison guards in Russia currently feel safe, experts are confident that all of them will eventually be held accountable for their crimes and will not be able to evade international justice, even by changing their names or hiding behind the walls of detention centers. For this reason, the Molfar Intelligence Institute is disclosing their names, creating a separate registry – “Russian Prison Guards Holding Ukrainian Captives.”
The full volume of information about the 144 identified individuals has been published in a special registry, as the data cannot fit into a single article.
The exact number of Ukrainians still held captive in Russia is unknown. According to Iryna Vereshchuk, as of May 1, 2025, about 8,000 Ukrainians are in captivity in Russia. At the same time, according to Volodymyr Zelensky, since the beginning of the invasion, 4,306 prisoners of war have been successfully returned home (as of March 21, 2025).
Daily captivity is an unbearable torture for every Ukrainian. Russian prison guards must understand: none of them will remain unpunished for crimes against humanity.