Cyber Resistance gained access to a large array of data on the penal system of the LPR. They learned about the prisoners of “foreigners”, the crimes of the Russian military and the names of collaborators.
Briefly, what you will learn from this material:
- How many citizens are the occupiers officially holding in prisons in Luhansk region;
- For what crimes are the Russian military and collaborators being tried, hiding it;
- How did the unification of the prison system of the “LPR” and Russia take place, and Ukrainians are kidnapped in the Russian Federation;
- How the occupiers try to get information about prisoners of war from their relatives. Why providing such information will not help, but will harm;
“The LPR is a prison for Ukrainians.” Such a motto suits the Russian formation in the east of Ukraine, which is confirmed by its own departmental documentation. The Russians and traitors who currently rule Luhansk Region call most of their prisoners Ukrainians. And now we are not talking about prisoners of war or political prisoners. It is literally about all the convicted or arrested.
The data to be discussed were obtained by Cyber Resistance activists from a reliable source in the occupied territories. The first archive is dated February 2023. The police of the Rostov region is appealing to local jailers to provide information “about foreign citizens who are serving sentences in prisons in the Luhansk region.”
The answer is being prepared under the signature of Oleksiy Cherepovsky, the long-time head of the so-called penitentiary system of the LPR. It follows that more than 2,000 foreign citizens are detained in the Luhansk region (exact number: 2,101).
“Foreigners” are citizens of Ukraine who were born and have lived in Luhansk Oblast all their lives. Although among the prisoners there are citizens of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Russia, stateless persons and even one Latvian passport holder.
Moreover, so-called foreigners make up more than 50% of those detained at the Luhansk Regional Prison, whom the occupiers recognize as convicts. According to another document, which was also received by Cyber Resistance, the total population of colonies and isolation cells in the temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk region as of May 2023 is 3,756 people.
There is a lot of information about “foreigners” in addition to the number. For example, regarding the occupancy of specific correctional institutions and their specifics. In particular, in the Alchevsk Prison, half of the detainees have tuberculosis, in the Seleznivsk Prison, women are detained, and Krasnolutsk Prisonis considered a “zone for political”.
The latter concerns primarily the settlement of accounts between different groups of occupants. More than three dozen people from the Krasnolutsky colony were convicted under Article 335 (treason) or 336 (espionage) of the so-called “LPR” criminal code.
Most of these convicts are former members of “LPR” gang formations or officials of the occupation administration who fell into disfavor after yet another redistribution of influence in the unrecognized republic. There were repeated waves of clean-ups.
One of such revealing stories concerns the already mentioned only citizen of Latvia among the detainees, Valentin Veselov. The former journalist and mercenary, who fought under the leadership of Aleksandr Bydnov (a close associate of the former head of the “LPR” Igor Plotnytskyi), quickly became a “Latvian spy” after the change of leadership in 2017. Now Veselovs (official surname on the passport) is serving his sentence in the prison in Bokovo-Khrustalny (location of the Krasnolutsk Prison).
In the women’s prison in Seleznivka, former “adviser to the deputy head of the Council of Ministers of the LPR” Diana Salukvadze is being held. Serhii Kondrashev [c1] is also being held in Bokovo-Khrustalnoi, whose first name, surname and patronymic completely match the data of the ex-head of Lugmedpharm, an institution that monopolized the drug market in the occupied region. The fact that Kondrashev was convicted was not reported at all by local propagandists. There is only evidence of this in social networks. Kondrashev, in addition to “treason”, was also accused of “exceeding official authority”.
The list of “convicted by courts of the LPR” is only the tip of the iceberg. A significant part of those detained are those against whom there are not even fake verdicts. In particular, prisoners of war or people who are routinely kidnapped from the territories that Russia occupied after the start of the full-scale invasion. The number of such people may even exceed the number of “convicts”.
Transit between Luhansk region and Rostov region: Ukrainian prisoners and Russian criminals
People from Ukraine are illegally deported and tried in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation. Cyber Resistance activists also received one example of such actions. Due to the sensitivity of personal data, we will not publish personal information.
Nevertheless, we have at our disposal documents that confirm the illegal staging of Ukrainians from Luhansk to Rostov-on-Don. They give an idea of the mechanism of illegal detention and then deportation of people to the territory of Russia.
At the same time, Cyber Resistance activists managed to establish that the Novocherkassk Garrison Military Court is a permanent staging area for Russian war criminals who commit crimes against the local population of the Luhansk region.
At the disposal of the activists were 13 resolutions on this topic, which were issued only in the second quarter of 2023. Typical articles of indictment: murder, theft, robbery, extortion. There are also accusations of desertion and voluntary abandonment of the military unit. We also publish all these documents.
Cyber Resistance also managed to establish at least three locations of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Luhansk region — the former Sukhodil and Sverdlovsk Prisons No. 36 and No. 38, as well as the already mentioned Luhansk pretrial detention center. From these places, prisoners are also taken to the so-called courts in Luhansk, Novocherkassk or Rostov-on-Don. For security reasons, we are not yet publishing all available documents.
Who is responsible for crimes
After the so-called annexation of the occupied territories to Russia, the local administration began to be brought up to the general standards of the Russian Federation. This also applied to punitive bodies. The process created a huge number of documents that make it possible to establish the names of employees of the so-called penitentiary system. This will help bring them to justice for crimes against civilians and prisoners of war. Most of the received data was transferred by “Cyber Resistance” to law enforcement agencies and to the “Peacemaker” base. Now just a few examples.
There was enough information about Oleksiy Cherepovskyi, who has been in charge of the prison system in the LPR for years, and continues to do so now under the Russian flag. At the time of the “reform”, Cherepovsky withdrew from official duties, but retained full control over the department. He again became the official head of the “Penitentiary department of Russia for the LPR” in June 2023, after the completion of unification. But the “reform” made it possible to identify many responsible for the processes at the middle level. Here, for example, Vadym Lugovskoi is a person who tries to stay in the shadows, but is responsible for all notarial processes in the department.
But Dmytro Gerasimov is a collaborator and middle-ranking clerk who agreed to become the “Zits-head” of the so-called liquidation commission “UIN MIA LPR” (the name of the “LPR” penitentiary system before the formal unification with the Russian one). Evidently, Gerasimov was promised no problems and a good salary for formal participation in the process, but he cannot avoid responsibility for crimes and collaborationism. The head of the archival department, Tetyana Krynychna, will definitely help the investigation with documentation about the crimes of the occupiers and collaborators.
And one more detail, which does not directly relate to Russian crimes, but gives an idea of the relationship between the Moscow leadership and the “elite” collaborators. Authorities in Moscow shun official communication with the occupation administrations. This is evidenced by a letter from the central administration of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia to the heads of regional structures in the Rostov region and occupied Crimea.
In terms of form, this is a boring bureaucratic document about additional funds for bonuses to employees of the institution in the occupied territories of Ukraine “for conscientious performance of official duties” and the like. But the deputy director of FSIN (Penitentiary system), Lieutenant-General Aleksandr Khabarov does not want to communicate directly with subordinates in the occupied territories of Donetsk region, Luhansk region, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region. Instead, he orders the heads of departments in the Rostov region and Crimea to relay the wonderful news further down the chain. In the future, Khabarov is unlikely to be helped by this attempt to distance himself, because he has forgotten that Crimea is also occupied. The letter is dated April 5, 2023. At that moment, almost six months had passed since the “solemn accession” of the occupied territories to Russia, which was confirmed by “referendums” and “constitutional laws.” But the Kremlin system apparently has little faith in the power of the Russian constitution. And collaborators are not recognized as equals.
A great confirmation that the Russians will drain the traitors in the first place, as soon as the moment is right. They need “Compatriots” and territories in Ukraine exclusively for trade. People like General Khabarov and the Moscow bureaucracy in general were among the first to realize this. It is also ironic that at one time it was the Russians who invented the political technology about the “three types of Ukrainians”, where Russian-speakers are supposedly the lowest caste. In reality, “sorting” is practiced in Russia.
Phishing data about prisoners
Cyber Resistance also discovered that the occupiers are trying to collect data on Ukrainians in captivity and their relatives and are having some success in this. The essence of the technology is simple: relatives of captured or missing Ukrainians are encouraged to send “applications” to the occupation administrations with a request to confirm or deny the stay of a certain person in penal institutions. In particular, such appeals are also sent to the “UFSIN of Russia for the LPR”. Some relatives provide the occupiers with scanned copies of passports (their own and soldiers’), birth and marriage certificates, data on the places where soldiers served, numbers of military units, etc. There are several reasons why this should never be done.
First, and this is the simplest: such appeals do not help to find relatives in captivity. The occupiers keep separate reports on the prisoners and their places of stay. This is evidenced by the data on “foreigners” in penal institutions of the “LPR”, which are given in this material. The list does not include any prisoners of war or even prisoners “convicted” by the occupiers. Therefore, such data will definitely not be provided at the request of ordinary Ukrainians.
Secondly, such appeals can significantly complicate the prisoner’s life. The fact is that some soldiers in captivity hide information about their identity and place of service. Especially if they were captured without documents. This makes life easier for fighters and can speed up their release. The occupiers treat soldiers from different units of the Defense Forces differently. Some may demand much more than others. If we are talking about units known in the media, then the occupiers can use the prisoners for propaganda purposes by initiating legal proceedings against them. This will further delay the release. Therefore, the documents and data about the soldier provided to the occupiers can destroy his legend and prolong his captivity indefinitely.
The occupiers can also torture the warrior to get even more information.
Third, the data provided to the occupiers may have a negative impact on the captive’s brothers and sisters who continue to fight as part of the Defense Forces. Having learned about the location of the prisoner’s service, the occupiers will use this information to learn even more: in particular, the current location of the unit, its personnel composition, etc.
Defense forces and Cyber Resistance know where Ukrainian prisoners and hostages are kept and who is responsible for their keeping. The responsible Ukrainian authorities make every effort to free the captive Ukrainians. No one can do more for them.
