INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
When the Russian military retreated from the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in November last year, they stole a number of prized items:
a year on, more than 1,500 Kherson prisoners still remain in prisons in Russia, while many others, who long ago completed their
Ukraine-issued jail sentences, have been released but are unable to get home without a passport.Ukraine argues that the transfer of its
Ukrainian prosecutors, legal counsel and a number of former prisoners themselves about life in Kherson prisons under Russian occupation,
their forced journeys to Russia, and their struggle to return to Ukraine.None of your businessOn the evening of Feb
23, 2022, Vadym* fell asleep in his cell feeling optimistic: a Kherson court had finally agreed to consider his request for parole.The
32-year-old from Mykolaiv, a city in south Ukraine, had served more than half of his sentence in Northern Correctional Colony No
90 and was in good standing with the prison administration
hostel than a prison.But the next day, Russia invaded Ukraine
optimism before the invasion
Another inmate at Colony No
90, Olexandr, who asked that his surname not be published, said many prisoners were anxious in those final weeks, frequently asking the
28, Russian forces had completely surrounded Kherson city
10, 20 kilometers north of Kherson, 22 prisoners, all veterans of the war in Donbas, wrote letters to the prison authorities, asking to be
released so they could join the local territorial defense.
The head of Colony No
90, Yevhen Sobolev, was one of the first officials in Kherson who agreed to cooperate with the Russian authoritiesOne of them, Maksym, told
openDemocracy he was put in a punishment cell for this proposal, with the prison administration accusing him of planning a riot
But Oleh Tsvilyi, the chairman of NGO Protection of Prisoners of Ukraine, told openDemocracy that the Ministry of Justice should have had a
plan for the evacuation of prisoners in case of war
The ministry did not respond to a request for comment from openDemocracy.Kherson Northern Colony No
The city authorities decided to use prisoners at a poultry farm whose water supply had been cut off by shelling, ordering the men to kill
out of their cage and slaughter, then another person would pluck them and another pack them
Russian occupation.The head of Colony No
90, Yevhen Sobolev, was one of the first officials in Kherson who agreed to cooperate with the Russian authorities and began to persuade his
subordinates and colleagues at other prisons to do so
Ukrainian state symbols disappeared from the internal walls and guards removed chevrons with the Ukrainian flag from their
But the prison guards, led by warden Ihor Guryakov, resisted for more than two months, insisting that they would continue to operate
according to Ukrainian laws.On May 11, Russian military police raided the detention center
Russian soldiers killed one prisoner during the operation
to organize a prison riot on behalf of the Ukrainian security services and had now agreed to work under Russian leadership
beaten and tortured her clients with electric shocks, and threatened their families with violence, ahead of the recorded speech.Ukrainian
prosecutors claim Guryakov and his deputy went on to help Russian forces to create a system of punishment, and tried to hide when Ukrainian
troops arrived to liberate the city
Okhrymovych said this is not true, claiming her clients invited senior penitentiary system officials to a meeting to explain themselves on
16 November 2022.Only after Guryakov was kidnapped did the Ukrainian justice ministry offer some kind of plan for prisons under Russian
summer, the Ukrainian government suggested prison guards should be excluded from the definition of collaboration
more prison guards accused of high treason and collaboration than any other Kherson officials
Before the full-scale invasion, the region had around 1,000 prison guards; around 100 currently face collaboration charges, according
This includes both those who have been arrested and those who fled with the Russian army to the left bank of the Dnipro river after the
to move convicts from several prisons to Colony No
90.Around 700 people were transferred to Kherson from Daryevka prison, and a further 100 from nearby Snihurivka, where a specialized
fire for three months.
As the prisoners were brought under Russian rule, they not only faced the rules of an occupying army, but a shift in
the time-old traditions of post-Soviet prisonsA former prisoner of Snihurivka, Serhiy, told openDemocracy that Russian soldiers arrived at
Russian rule, they not only faced the rules of an occupying army, but a shift in the time-old traditions of post-Soviet prisons
Until then, life in Colony No
90 became tougher every day: searches became more frequent and prisoners could be beaten or sent to a punishment cell for rudeness
Those who refused or criticized the occupation, were transferred to a pre-trial detention center where, under torture, they were forced to
confess to connections with the Ukrainian army wand security services
longer a choice for convicts: they were forced, under threat of violence, to renovate premises for the Russian military and build defensive
humanitarian aid arrived there
I worked there every day unloading: everything was better than sitting in a cramped barracks
Ukrainian missiles hit the sawmill and an ammunition depot in the work zone of Colony No
The administration started to suspect prisoners were working as Ukrainian artillery spotters directing the military; several people were
frequently.In October, the administration of Colony No
90 announced that all convicts would be transported to another tuberculosis hospital prison in Hola Pristan, a city on the left bank of the
his sentence.
Some Ukrainian prisoners were luckier than others
Vadym avoided being transferred to Russia on account of his good behaviorAs the Kherson bridge across the Dnipro was out of action,
prisoners were transported by ferry over several days
90, were later dispersed across the Russian prison systemIgor Burdyga / oDRWhat happened next was even more unexpected
received the prisoners, beating them as they left the vehicles.From there, the prisoners were taken to Krasnodar, a city in southern Russia
It was there that Oleksandr found out he had tuberculosis
He believes he became infected in the barracks of the Hola Pristan colony or during the transfer period.Throughout November, the prisoners
Ukrainian human rights activists who work on prisons found them quickly, thanks to their network of informal contacts.Oleh Tsvilyi of
prisoners were told to stay away from the Ukrainians
orders to the contrary from guards.
Across the city, when the first Ukrainian soldiers were entering Kherson on the morning of Nov
11, prisoners at the pre-trial detention center opened their cells and leftSome Ukrainian prisoners were luckier than others
Vadym avoided being transferred to Russia on account of his good behavior
watched the Russian military hastily set up positions on the left bank of the Dnipro as Ukrainian forces got closer to the city
Days later, the prisoners managed to catch a signal from Ukrainian television: Ukrainian armed forces had liberated Kherson city.Across the
11, prisoners at the pre-trial detention center opened their cells and left
The guards had fled and left them the keys
In a matter of minutes, 450 prisoners scattered across Kherson
Only a few with life sentences waited around for Ukrainian law enforcement.Police rounded up prisoners throughout the city over the next few
Many returned on their own: the period of detention prescribed by the courts had long expired, and no one was rearresting them
Investigators were much more interested in the crimes of the occupiers and their accomplices.Prosecutor Pavlo Mashkovskyi evacuated from
deportation of Ukrainian prisoners, though he admitted to openDemocracy that the Ukrainian penal system was responsible for its employees
It is not even known how many people were deported: the official investigation estimates more than 1,700, while human rights activists
suggest 2,500, and the UN human rights monitoring mission to Ukraine says approximately 1,600.This summer, Mashkovskyi brought charges of
violating the laws and customs of war against Yevgeny Sobolev, as the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the region, and Alexey
Soroka, the head of the colony in Gola Prystan
occupied Ukraine.Ukrainian prisoners in some camps were also asked to join Russian private militaries, though openDemocracy is not aware of
treatment for tuberculosis
A certificate of release was formally issued by the Hola Pristan prison on March 23
With this in hand, Olexandr received the remains of his personal belongings, his old civilian clothes and 2,000 Russian rubles for the
He was taken to a police station and fined 2,000 rubles for illegally crossing the Russian border.The traces of Russian propaganda in
Kherson have since been put on display in KyivIgor Burdyga / oDRSince the beginning of the year, more than a hundred Kherson prisoners have
been released from Russian colonies
All that openDemocracy was able to speak with, as well as all encountered by various human rights organizations, have reported similar
the Kremlin officially considering the entire Kherson region as Russian territory.But as deportation from Russia to Ukraine is impossible,
the men are placed in immigration detention centers, which have slightly better conditions than Russian prisons.Two NGOs have been looking
prisoners and ex-prisoners with a history of drug use in several former Soviet countries.Tsvilyi suggested a route through Kolotilovka, the
last semi-official checkpoint on the Ukraine-Russia border
But crossing without a passport is banned and most of the prisoners either did not have a passport at the time of arrest or lost it while
But the process dragged on: in April, the Ukrainian government decided that the simplified procedure for processing such documents did not
apply to prisoners, and confirming the identity of prisoners from Kyiv took many months.In October, these Kherson prisoners were held for
days in the transit zone between Russia and GeorgiaMeduzaGeorgian authorities have already stopped former Kherson prisoners crossing the
Verkhnyi Lars land crossing with Russia several times, but after the intervention of the Ukrainian consulate and human rights activists,
they were eventually allowed into the country
The last group was allowed through on Oct
25, but only after the six prisoners spent 15 days in a room at the Verkhnyi Lars crossing.That process, according to another prisoner's
later the six left for home.Skrypka hopes that a new Russian procedure for confirming the identity of foreign citizens, signed off by
Vladimir Putin in October, will speed up the transfer of Ukrainian prisoners who have been released in Russia.However, neither human rights
activists, nor official ombudspersons, nor the heads of the Ukrainian and Russian penitentiary systems are yet to find a solution to the
sentences have not yet ended being held in Russian prisons, according to estimates by human rights activists
Oleh Tsvilyi suspects that some of them will be sent to new prisons that Russia is building in the parts of Kherson that are still under
Vadym worked at one of these prison construction sites until his release in September 2023
He now lives in Kyiv, earning money through day-to-day work.Although Tsvilyi does not have exact figures, he notes that many Ukrainian
convinces them that, back in Ukraine, they will be punished for having a Russian passport, sent back to prison to finish out the sentence
