Russia's 'torture prisons' in Ukraine exposed | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast from. the BBC. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and. today I'm joined by Tanya Henenko. And. Tanya, you have uncovered some terrible. stories of abuse of Ukrainian civilians. in secret jails in Russian occupied. Ukraine and over the border in Russia. itself. First of all, tell us about. these detention centers. Well, actually. for Ukrainians inside of Ukraine, it's. not a news even, you know, uh a lot of.

civilians are kept in those detention. centers for years and years and uh their. relatives are trying to sometimes to. understand whether they are even alive. or not. What we did with this. investigation, we found survivors uh who. were in such detention centers and who. survived the tortures and uh sexual. violence in some of the cases. And we. also uh check the open sources to see. the statements of other survivors. And.

we were able to establish that there are. approximately 93 such centers in. occupied territories of Ukraine and 102. in Russia where Ukrainian civilians uh. were held. Uh and we are talking about. time frame of research uh in from 2023. to 2025. So that is the data from those. years. And who are the people who are. being held in these centers and and how. did they end up there? >> Well, there are so many different. stories how people [sighs] uh end up in.

those centers. So one of the characters. uh like leading character in our. documentary with Ma Hussein Nova um she. was engineer on a poultry farm in. Novasovsk in Donetsk obst which was. occupied and um several years after the. occupation in 2019 uh she was arrested. She was working as a volunteer because a. lot of Ukrainians who are staying on. occupied territories they they were. trying to support Ukrainian armed forces.

or she was also helping to uh orphanages. uh to kids who didn't have support after. the occupation. So she would send some. food or you know shoes and uh for that. help she received the flag from uh. Ukrainian soldiers and they left. signatures there. um she shared that. picture among trusted friends and. somehow it probably ended up in the. wrong hands. So she was arrested and. after that brought to um notorious.

prison in Bonetsk which called Isilatia. Um and you know that is her story. After. that she spent in detention for more. than 3 years. Uh there are other stories. of people who were in occupation in her. son and they ended up in her son. detention center. Um I mean in last. years since full-scale invasion I had. conversations with a lot of uh Ukrainian. civilians. Um one of them was mass. teacher. Uh she was uh abducted I mean.

kidnapped basically uh from um I think. it was K region as far as I remember and. then she was brought to Russian prison. where uh she um you know she was. subjected to terrible uh tortures. Tell. us more about Lud Miller. She was. basically just bundled off the street, taken to one of these centers. And what. happened to her there? >> So when she was brought there, uh she uh. was um you know, searched uh there were.

comments ma made, sexualized comments. about her body. Um Luna was eventually. brought to her cell and she wanted to. cry. Um but one of the inmates, female. invmate told her, uh don't you dare to. do that. They are watching us all the. time and whoever cries will be bitten. So there are very strict rules in. Islatia where if somebody from guards. enters the cell, uh prisoners are.

supposed to wear the backs on their. heads, uh they are not allowed to sit or. to lay in their bed. they have to stand. up the light uh for hours and hours and. hours. Obviously, the light doesn't go. off even during the night. And then uh. she describes that there in her in the. documentary and her interviews she says. that she has never heard such terrible. screaming as she heard there because um. and you know people who are survivors.

from Iselia, there are other um. survivors we interviewed in uh. documentary. They're talking about uh. sexualized torture. So uh one of the. characters Rouslancher told us that uh. he was tortured for several months. including the electrocution of genitals. Uh they are threatened that they can be. raped or their family can be brought in. uh in Iselia and can be raped as well. In some of the cases they said that they.

learn this new habit of listening who is. tortured in hope that those are not. their relatives. You know Miller she was. sexually assaulted in Isalia and later. she was transferred to another prison. um she was still in prison during. full-scale invasion in 2022. and then later she returned in exchange. um in prisoner swap. >> and the UN has said that torture of. civilians at these places is systematic.

and widespread. What more can you tell. us about that? Well, we uh we see that. um that started with the beginning of. the war in 2014 and I would say it was. brought to the conscious of the western. world or reported more widely after. full-scale invasion when we saw what was. happening in Heron and other regions. But the the system works uh and it's um. you know the main rule of that system is. subjecting uh civilians especially.

politically. political uh detainees uh to uh terrible. tortures in order to break them. >> And who are the people who are carrying. out this torture? as uh one of our characters again in. documentary Rouslan Shhater describes on. the example is. he says that isia uh wasn't created by. Putin it was created by regular people. and um there were Russian soldiers in.

charge of Iselia as guards and also. Ukrainian collaborators. So one of uh perpetrators we. investigated in documentary is Yermach. his Ukrainian collaborator. it's his. cold name and he was a person who um. tortured Lud Miller in the way when he. came and saw her first for the first. time. She she was uh she was informed. that he is coming inside of the cell. So. she wore the uh back on her head. So she. wasn't able to see him but she knew who.

he is because there were a lot of you. know people were talking about him as. one of the um most violent uh uh people. there in Zelatia. So Yermach basically. he asked Ludm Miller uh whether she is. supporting Ukraine and she said that she. supports justice and that's was the. moment that was the moment when he uh. violently started beating her and later. when he thought that she's on hunger. strike because she lost some weight he.

told her that for her they will cook. special food and then they brought raw. food mixed with garbage. uh she was. forced to eat it in front of CCTV. camera. So they were watching um her. doing that. Basically they watching all. inmates in Isolatia all of the time um. which doesn't give them any priv privacy. whatsoever. And so she um one of her. friends told her in in that cell that. she can hide you know that pretend that.

she eats but split it out. She was. trying to do that but she says that the. taste of that food will stay with her. forever. >> And how were you able to identify this. man? >> Uh well actually in in case of uh. Yermach uh um uh Bellingat did their. research before and other uh survivor. from Isolatia uh Ukrainian journalist AF. uh was helping them with testimony about. Yermach's role in Isolatia as well. So.

when we learned from Redm Miller that um. one of her cases when like this. situation which I described happened. with Yermach we uh checked information. about him checked uh that from his. social networks we were able to. establish where he approximately lives. We cannot confirm whether he still works. in Islatia or not, but it looks like he. still lives in the area and some. pictures uh from his social networks. suggest that he was like having quite.

good time in occupied Crimea on holidays. with his family. So uh what surprises a. lot of uh people but it's still probably. you know uh in a lot of stories about uh. people who commit crers is always uh. this like normal side of them. So it's. uh. quite interesting to see the testimonies. of survivors and then to check the.

regular like happy family pictures and. to see that they also live this normal. life. >> And what did the Russian authorities say. about these detention centers? >> They didn't reply uh about the uh you. know allegations about the number of. civilians in detention centers. It. mostly was about the um documentation of. the crimes and that they are on the side. of the law and that they the responsible. authorities monitor the situation. But.

uh earlier when UN was uh added Russia. to the blacklist of um countries. responsible for conducting or committing. sexual violence crimes during the. conflict. uh the Russian representative. in UN he accused um organization in. being biased and you know just like he. said that they are trying to portray. Russia as a willing villain so um that's. it yeah. >> Tanya thank you Tanya Harchenko reporter.

who has uncovered those appalling. stories if you'd like to hear more from. the global news podcast click the link. below but thanks for watching.