The premises of the former Izolyatsia (, ) factory and art centre are used as a torture prison in

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, created after the city's capture in 2014 by Russian armed forces. The prison was established after representatives of the

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; , ) is Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupied territory in Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex and declared as a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia, comprising parts o ...

(DPR) seized the site of the Izolyatsia Arts Foundation and converted it into a closed site of the State Security Ministry of the DPR. Izolyatsia functions as a training facility for DPR fighters as well as a depot for automobiles, military technology and weapons. The prison has secret status as detainees are convicted by illegal DPR courts without proper investigation. There are numerous known cases where Izolyatsia inmates only gave confession after being tortured.

History

The building was constructed in 1955 as a factory for processing raw mineral cotton and was later adapted to produce stitched mineral cotton slabs, mineral cotton wool, basaltic fiber, basaltic cardboard, basaltic mates, and slabs on basaltic basis. The factory closed in 1990. From 2010 to 2014, the Izolyatsia Foundation, centered around the creative arts, occupied the site. The name of the arts organization is taken from that of the factory and its main product, insulation, and also means "isolation". "Izolyatsia" is one of 160 illegal prisons in the Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine.

Seizure of the Izolyatsia Foundation site

On 9 June 2014, armed representatives of the DPR invaded the Izolyatsia Foundation site. Roman Lyagin, who participated in the seizure, and who was Russia's head of the "Donetsk People's Republic" "Central Electoral Commission" claimed that the premises were necessary to store humanitarian aid received from the Russian Federation. According to Leonid Baranov, who was the State Security Minister of the DPR at the time, the Izolyatsia Foundation's site was seized for ideological reasons: It was thought that the Foundation's values would bring harm to the DPR. Liubov Mikhailova, Izolyatsia Foundation's founder, claims that infrastructure played a part since Izolyatsia is a 7.5ha developed site. According to the data presented in the DRA's report and the media initiative for human rights, the Vostok Battalion settled on the site in June 2014 and prisoners of war and civilian hostages were kept on the premises.

Conditions

According to the testimony of former prisoners, the offices and basements of the former factory were reequipped as jail cells with five-litre cans for toilets. A few of the administrative buildings were used by the staff of the Izolyatsia prison as torture chambers. Former prisoners have remarked that the Izolyatsia buildings are not equipped to serve as a prison, and that its conditions more closely resemble those of a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

. Prisoners are forced to work for the wardens, who regularly use physical violence, and are deprived of food, water, and medical care. From 2014 to 2016, as many as 100 prisoners were held in basement cells at any one time. Izolyatsia lacked bunks and toilets, so prisoners used plastic water containers for waste. By 2017, there were still no toilets in the cells located above the basements, so prisoners were led to a separate building to use the toilets twice a day. Prisoners could lose toilet privileges. In July 2017, at the initiative of one of the prisoners, the prison cells were renovated and toilets and sinks were installed. Nevertheless, in many of the buildings—the two isolation cells and the sixth cell, called the "luxe"—conditions did not change. According to the report by the

Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...

for the period from 16 November 2019 to 15 February 2020, the individuals detained in Izolyatsia underwent torture, including electric shocks, mock executions and sexual violence. In accordance with the report, representatives of the DPR's state security ministry carried out interrogations there. The journalist Stanislav Aseyev, who was held in the Izolyatsia prison from 2017 to 2019, stated that acts have been carried out there would qualify as war crimes. He described the torture leading to suicide attempts of several prisoners. During the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, Ukraine's foreign minister,

Dmytro Kuleba Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba ( ; born 19 April 1981) is a Ukrainian politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was concurrently a member of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine. The youngest foreign affai ...

, said that the prison "continues to function as a literal concentration camp, in Europe in the 21st Century".

Notable prisoners

In 2014, there were more than 100 prisoners in Izolyatsia. Dmitrii Potekhin, Valentina Buchok, Galina Gaeva, and Stanislav Aseyev have all been held in Izolyatsia.

Roman Lyagin case

In June 2019, Lyagin was apprehended by representatives of the SSU. Lyagin was accused of participation in a terrorist organisation, infringement of

's territorial integrity, and treason for his role in organising a referendum regarding the status of the DPR, the results of which were not recognised by Ukraine, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

or the United States. Lyagin was also implicated in the seizure of the Izolyatsia Foundation's site by the DPR. Representatives of the foundation and former captives of the Izolyatsia prison insist that Lyagin is personally responsible for the seizure of the site and its transformation into a secret prison, but Kyiv's Shevchenkovskyi Court has not recognised the foundation or the former Izolyatsia prisoners as an injured party in the Lyagin case.

Propaganda

Photographs and videos were produced at Izolyatsia showing

ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

fighters alongside soldiers from the Ukrainian

Azov Battalion The 12th Special Forces Brigade "Azov" () is a formation of the National Guard of Ukraine formerly based in Mariupol, in the coastal region of the Sea of Azov, from which it derives its name. It was founded in May 2014 as the Azov Battalion (), ...

. An investigation conducted by

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journalists with assistance from Wikimapia established where the shoot took place and refuted the material as

fake Fake or fakes may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * The Fake (1927 film), ''The Fake'' (1927 film), a silent British drama film * The Fake (1953 film), ''The Fake'' (1953 film), a British film * Fake (2003 film), ''Fake'' (20 ...

Creative works

* 2018: essay collection by Stanislav Aseyev, ''V іzolyatsiï'' (In isolation). * 2020: documentary film, ''Kontstabir "Izoliatsiia"'' (Izoliatsiia concentration camp), directed by Sergii Ivanov. *

References

{{Coord, 47, 57, 51, N, 37, 50, 03, E, display=title Prisons in Ukraine War in Donbas Russian war crimes in Ukraine Buildings and structures in Donetsk Donetsk People's Republic Torture in the Russo-Ukrainian War Donetsk in the Russo-Ukrainian War