What happened
A BBC World Service investigation has identified several individuals involved in the systematic torture and ill-treatment of civilians within Russia's secretive detention system in occupied parts of Ukraine. This system, operating largely outside Ukrainian and international justice, includes numerous unofficial sites in occupied Ukraine and Russia.
Liudmyla Huseinova, 64, recounts her three-year detention beginning in 2019, accusing Yurii Temerbek, a former Ukrainian traffic policeman who joined Russian-backed separatists, of involvement in her arrest and sexual assault at the notorious Izolyatsia detention centre. Temerbek, along with another guard identified as "Koval," allegedly subjected her to physical and sexual abuse, and psychological torment. Ukrainian authorities have initiated criminal proceedings against Temerbek for being part of a "terrorist group" related to the Donetsk People's Republic's Ministry of State Security.
Another guard, "Yermak," later identified as Ruslan Yeriomichev, is accused by Huseinova of forcing her to eat uncooked food mixed with soil and rubbish, and beating her. Yeriomichev faces charges from Ukrainian prosecutors for cruel treatment of prisoners of war and civilians.
The article also highlights the case of Oleksii Sivak, 42, arrested in Kherson in 2022, who endured electric shock torture. Ukrainian prosecutors accuse Andrey Spivak, a former Russian prison system policeman, of running the Kherson detention facility.
The UN's human rights office (OHCHR) confirms the torture and ill-treatment of civilians in these facilities as "systematic and widespread," with Russia being added to the UN's blacklist for alleged sexual violence in conflict zones in May 2026. The BBC identified 93 detention sites in occupied Ukraine and 102 in Russia, with international organizations denied free access. Survivors like Huseinova and Sivak emphasize the importance of identifying and holding perpetrators accountable, even if justice means public exposure of their crimes.