Yuri Kobzar23:35, 07.06.25

The existence of an entire network of secret prisons was not known until very recently.

Human rights activists have found out that a secret network of camps for Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages has been created in Russia , which exists separately from the official penitentiary (prison) system. This was reported by the Russian opposition project “Agency. News” .

As Nikolai Polozov, a lawyer and co-founder of the humanitarian initiative “Search. Captured,” told the publication, human rights activists learned about the existence of secret prisons for Ukrainians only now, and mostly by accident. Russian bureaucrats “let it slip” about these institutions in court certificates about places where prisoners are being held.

“In a number of criminal cases against prisoners of war that we handled in court, we saw certificates about where they were held,” the human rights activist explained.

According to Polozov, as a rule, captured Ukrainians in Russia are kept in regular pretrial detention centers or prisons. But now it has become known from court documents that there is also a certain “temporary detention center for persons detained for opposing the SVO.”

Polozov believes that at least four or five such centers have been created in Russia, but there may be more. Human rights activists have not yet been able to find any information about where such institutions may be located.

“They are not part of the Federal Penitentiary System; they are controlled, apparently, by the Ministry of Defense and the military police. And they categorically do not provide any information from there – we have submitted requests,” Polozov explained.

The number of Ukrainians held in such places is also unknown. Polozov notes that in secret prisons, prisoners are held in inhumane conditions, as reported by those who have already been rescued from captivity. At the same time, in official pretrial detention centers, where prisoners of war are placed if the Russian state decides to try them “according to the law,” the conditions are usually slightly better, says the human rights activist.

Polozov suggests that after the end of the war, the system of secret prisons could be scaled up to repress Russians themselves.

(c)UNIAN 2025