Report on Political Prisoners in Ukraine

Political Prisoners in Ukraine Reveal condition of prison camps: Torture, Slave Labor, and Murder Under the Aegis of the Zelenskyy Regime

Ukrainian political prisoners and communist brothers Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich have created the Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners and Human Rights, which has reported torture in correctional facilities. According to their findings, these were transformed by the Zelenskyy regime into veritable “concentration camps”.

The Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners and Human Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Committee) has received testimony from prisoners and their lawyers about inhumane conditions in a number of correctional facilities, sophisticated torture, and the use of prisoners as free labor. The Committee requests that the information it has released be considered an official appeal to investigative authorities regarding serious crimes committed by the administration of Vinnytsia Correctional Colony No. 86 and other similar institutions.

A network of labor camps in Ukraine

The Committee, through lawyers and political prisoners themselves, has received reliable information that Vinnytsia Correctional Colony No. 86 (CC-86) has become a site of reprisals against dissidents and political opponents.

The conditions there are described as following:

“The system’s goal is to destroy the individual while simultaneously extracting maximum profit through corruption. Pyatikhatka Correctional Colony No. 122 (CC-122) is a similar concentration camp…

Prisoners at CC-86 are forced to perform heavy physical labor—at construction sites, in a sawmill, and in barbed wire production. They are not provided with any protective clothing or adequate working conditions. For hard labor, prisoners receive 190 hryvnias per month—less than four euros. Records and documentation, as well as direct testimony from victims, readily confirm this information.

Torture, hunger, and lack of medical care

Medical care in the colony is virtually nonexistent: there is no inpatient facility, prisoners are not given vital medications, and the transfer of medications is deliberately blocked. The food is completely inadequate for the physiological needs of a person engaged in hard labor. Poor-quality food leads to systematic exhaustion and illness. The administration deliberately violates civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine: lawyers are not allowed, perishable packages are deliberately withheld so that food spoils and the prisoner becomes completely dependent on the administration. Calls to family and defense attorneys are prohibited—the colony is under a regime of maximum isolation, designed to conceal the crimes committed within.

To undermine human dignity, repressive rituals are used daily: prisoners are forced to kneel in public and clean up excrement and waste with their bare hands. During the day, it is forbidden to lie down, sit down, or even talk to each other. Colony staff are only allowed to be addressed as “sir,” after a humiliating bow and the removal of their hats. Torture involving physical violence and threats of rape with mops and other objects are recorded.

Chronicle of Atrocities: Recent Episodes

The Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners and Human Rights reports specific instances of torture of political prisoners in Penal Colony No. 86.

Andrei Anatolyevich Gimgin, a patient with cancer and diabetes, died in the infirmary without medication for beatings and forced labor after just a few months in CC No. 86—he died like a “dog,” abandoned to die without medical care.

On January 28, 2026, in the fifth unit of the Special Forces (SPS), prisoners Dzyuba, Kotenko, Sozonov, Shapran, Pyatachenko, Batarev, Kigilchenko, and Kelyukin were summoned to headquarters. Eight prison guards took turns beating them for being several minutes late for exercise—a delay caused by the absence of watches and the fact that no one woke them up. Meanwhile, it was -20 degrees Celsius outside, and there was no heat in the barracks, so the prisoners slept fully clothed. An attempt was made to rape Vitaly Kigilchenko with a mop.

On March 24, 2026, around 9 a.m., Samir Bedrashko and another man (who wished to remain anonymous) were summoned to the guardhouse. Six prison guards took turns brutally beating them, jumping on their bodies, and threatening them with sexual assault. The reason for the massacre was that the men had not put on their uniforms—they had been washed but not yet dry.

On March 31, 2026, after suffering a concussion and a severe hematoma on his head, Samir Bedrashko, tormented by constant vomiting, was physically unable to go to hard labor. The guards scattered his belongings and dragged him to the guardhouse for another beating. Driven mad by despair and the injustice, he broke free, ran to the kitchen, and slit his wrists. The administration called an ambulance and begged him not to reveal the reasons for the incident, threatening to kill him. Bedrashko’s subsequent fate is unknown.

Yarodar Vitlynets was brutally beaten and thrown into a punishment cell—a “pit”—for speaking out against torture and abuse of prisoners.

The prison also houses numerous former Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers with injuries and disabilities sustained during the current war. This is the current government’s way of “thanking” these soldiers for their service.

The European Union sponsors these prison camps; the ICRC has launched an investigation

The Committee draws the attention of the international community: by funding the Ukrainian state, the European Union also funds the camp established in Vinnytsia Correctional Colony No. 86, as well as the entire network of similar institutions. Therefore, the European Union bears direct political and legal responsibility for funding torture camps and human rights violations on Ukrainian territory.

Inquiries have already been sent to the relevant international organizations. On May 28, 2026, the Investigative Unit of the Ethics, Risk, and Compliance Department of the International Committee of the Red Cross registered the Committee’s appeal (IL 26-0609) and accepted it for review.

Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich, heads of the Committee for the Protection of Political Prisoners and Human Rights, state that all employees and administration of Vinnytsia Correctional Colony No. 86 have been identified. The Kononovich brothers warn that each of the perpetrators will be punished for the serious crimes they committed. Despite the fact that laws and the Constitution do not apply within the colony, justice will inevitably follow.”