IZOLYATSIA GULAG: Russian Concentration Camp in Donetsk?

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A shadow entity, Izolyatsia Prison should be a ghost, a place that does not exist. However, there has been many leaks of this so called ''concentration camp'' that was established in a former art centre in the rebel occupied Donetsk territory in Ukraine. Accusations of torture, inhumane treatments, conditions so vile that one has to think how people can survive there. This ''prison'' is said to be so pestilential that it's even too much for Russia!

ART CENTRE TURNED PRISON

Before it was a notorious prison filled with allegations of abuse and barbaric conditions, Izolyatsia was an art centre and factory. After the capture of Donetsk in 2014, it started to play host to a penitentiary. And if this wasn't enough, it also serves as a training centre for DPR fighters and depot for military equipment, weapons, and various other technologies. The status of this establishment is shady as prisoners are often prosecuted in a sham Donetsk court and are tortured for confessions.

The outside of Izolyatsia Prison, source Telegram - Donetsky Traktorist 

The building was constructed in 1955. It was a factory that processed raw mineral, and later, it produced various products such as stitched cotton slabs, mineral cotton wool, basaltic fibres, and other basaltic products. The factory closed in 1990.

Outside of Izolyatsia Prison, source Telegram - Donetsky Traktorist 

It sat empty for twenty years, and in 2010, the Izolyatsia Foundation took it over and created an art centre focused on creative arts. On 9th of June 2014, Russian backed rebels in Donetsk invaded the site and took it over. It was needed to store supplies from the Russian Federation. Some sources say that the Izolyatsia Foundation centre was taken over because its ideals were perceived as a threat to the DPR ideals.

It is alleged that the Vostok Battalion has located on the site and various civilian prisoners and prisoners of war are being kept. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine website, Izolyatsia Prison is an ''illegal prison where detained people - citizens of Ukraine - are subject to the cruellest tortures.''

OVER 100 PRISONERS, NO PROPER TOILETS

Conditions at the illegal prison are not fit for humans, not even animals. Since 2014, there has been over one hundred detainees held at Izolyatsia. The stories of those that could leave are shocking to say the least. Some of the allegations are:
  • Denial of food and water
  • No proper facilities for toilet use. In the first two years (2014 - 2016), prisoners were forced to use buckets for their needs. By 2017. they were led to a separate building two times per day, and those toilet privileges could be taken away if the guards decided so. At some point in 2017, the prison cells were renovated to include proper showers and toilets, but many of the buildings still lack these basic facilities.
  • The prisoners are not allowed to sleep, sometimes used as a form of torture.
  • Beatings with various tools such as sticks, metal bars, rifle butts, truncheons.
  • Waterboarding and choking with plastic bags.
  • Fake executions to strike the fear of death in the detainees.
  • Blindfolding and cuffing for a prolonged time
  • Sexual abuse
  • Using electricity to shock various parts of the bodies of detainees as a form of torture
  • Verbal abuse and threats of violence or sexual violence, death, and other forms of abuse to scare the detainees.
  • Cold water torture during interrogations
Torture room of the prison, source Telegram - Donetsky Traktorist 

WHO WAS IMPRISONED THERE?

One prominent detainee in Izolyatsia was Mr Stanislav Aseyev, who is a Ukrainian writer and journalist. He was living in Donetsk at the time of the invasion and continued reporting on the situation on publications such as Mirror Weekly and other types of Ukrainian media. He published his reports under a pseudonym: Stanislav Vasin. It did not help because in 2014, he was abducted and taken this notorious prison. He was kidnapped by rebels from the Donetsk People's Republic.

A cell where up to 20 prisoners sleep on the ground, source Telegram - Donetsky Traktorist 

Many humanitarian organisations called for his immediate release once the news came out that Aseyev was imprisoned. Despite the public outcry, he spent 962 days in isolation, with a sentence of 15 years. On 29 December 2019, he was given to the Ukrainian authorities in a prisoner exchange program.

After his release, Aseyev got involved in humanitarian activism and political activities. His cause was to champion for the rights of illegal prisoners in Russia and relevant occupied territories. He made a lot of speeches, including at the Munich Security Conference in 2020, pleading with governments and state officials to put pressure on Russia to release illegally captured detainees.

Mr Stanislav Aseyev, Ukrainian writer and activist, source unknown

He also made a documentary about Izolyatsia and the horrors that happened to him, and that continue to be reality of prisoners there.

CONCUSION

This jail is an abomination, like the rest of the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory and the subsequent ongoing invasion. This establishment needs to be shut and those poor prisoners set free. I hope that no Ukrainian soldiers, that have been captured by the enemy, end up in Izolyatsia Prison.

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