Collective punishments of prisoners in the Russian Federation: how Russians get confessions and what are Ukrainians accused of?

But relatives of soldiers held captive by Russia talk about the impossibility of finding prisoners and helping them by providing protection in the courts, and are also worried about the future fate of their relatives, that is, what to expect after the trials. They say they may be scattered among hard-to-find colonies in Russia.

Focus He collected various stories and spoke with experts who follow the processes.

First “decisions”

One of these suspects and a human rights activist who is currently “convicted” is Maksym Butkevich, co-founder of Hromadske Radio and who joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from its early days. He is a soldier of the separate special battalion “Berlingo”, a platoon commander. At the beginning of July 2022, it became known that Butkevich was captured by the Russian army in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bZolote and Gornoye settlements in the Lugansk region.

But the Russians did not see Maxim Butkevich as merely a prisoner of war; He was accused of “cruel treatment of civilians and the use of prohibited methods in armed conflict” and “attempted murder of two people in a shootout.” In a generally dangerous manner and intentional damage to another’s property in a generally dangerous manner.” The thing is that on June 4, he allegedly fired a grenade launcher into a house in Severodonetsk, Luhansk region, wounding two women.

The soldier’s colleagues, human rights activists, who have been following Butkevich’s “case” for all this time, say that this is fabrication, since Butkevich is quite a member of the media, and with his help there is pressure on Maxim and society. In addition, it has already been established that at the specified time the Berlingo unit was not in Severodonetsk.

However, in the spring of 2023, the so-called court in Lugansk, controlled by the Russian Federation, sentenced Maxim Butkevich to 13 years in a maximum security colony. Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement that Butkevich allegedly admitted the crime. In August 2023, the First Court of Appeals of the General Jurisdiction in Moscow confirmed this “decision”.

Butkevin was not brought to the hearing from Lugansk, but was released. The allegedly injured victims did not want to attend the meeting. Another victim, who was “seriously damaged”, did not come to Russia with a written statement.

Parallel to this process, another incident took place in occupied Donetsk. Representatives of the Azov regiment are above. They were accused of “attempted murder motivated by ideological and national hatred.” In the end, Pokhosey was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison and Shel to 18.5 years. The Russians transferred them to colony 32 in occupied Makeevka to serve their sentences.

All three were among the first Ukrainian prisoners of war to be convicted. Dozens of Ukrainian military personnel have since found themselves at the docks in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Search for those responsible for Mariupol

On September 29, 2023, the press service of the Investigative Committee of Russia announced the verdict of three representatives of the 23rd separate motorized infantry battalion of the 56th brigade (military unit A 2988, Mariupol) Dmitry Ivashchenko, Sergei Yaremkevich and Vladislav Bondar. They were caught leaving the Ilyich factory in Mariupol on April 12, 2022. The trio were sentenced to 20 years in prison in Donetsk. The defendants were found guilty of “cruel treatment of civilians, use of prohibited methods in armed conflict” and “attempt to kill two or more people by an organized group with the motivation of political and ideological hatred”.

The prosecution claimed that these soldiers and a group of unidentified people “opened fire on a convoy of five civilian vehicles with white ribbons tied to the side mirrors upon the order of the high command.” The indictment states that “the prisoners knew and understood that there were civilians in Mariupol who could not or did not have time to leave the area of ​​armed conflict.”

“Fortunately, the victims managed to escape from the shelling area by cars and take shelter in a safe place,” the Russian Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported.

Important

A week ago, on September 18, the so-called court in Donetsk sentenced 27-year-old Vladislav Kulik to life imprisonment. He is also a soldier of the 56th Brigade defending Mariupol. Kulik was accused of murdering local residents of Mariupol. “He and his colleagues shot eight civilians, including a woman. This took place between February 24 and April 12, 2022,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Experts also say that soldiers returning from captivity recall numerous interrogations in which Russians tried to extort confessions. It is carried out by both employees of various penal institutions and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, trying to find out what is known about the killings of civilians.

“We know from one of the former prisoners of war that Vladislav Kulik, “sentenced” for life, is now in a correctional colony in Gorlovka in the occupied territory, in a separate barracks where the defenders of Mariupol, mostly sailors, were kept.

“Azov” is also there, but its representatives are kept separately in the isolation ward and are also taken to hearings. “For example, in September Renat Aliyev was already sentenced to 20 years in prison,” he says. Focus Representative of the human rights organization Human Rights Media Initiative, which monitors the trials organized by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian prisoners of war Elena Belyachkova.

He explains: A large number of Ukrainian prisoners of war are being held in Kalinin correctional colony No. 27 in occupied Gorlovka.

“Everyone is taken to Donetsk for interrogation, some for so-called trials. Moreover, it is often not clear whether a person is taken for interrogation or “trial”. Some disappear for a day, some are absent for more than a day. Some are sent to Mariupol for so-called investigative activities.” “After the ‘decisions’ are made, the men are left in Gorlovka,” he adds.

The military personnel who mostly defended Mariupol are under suspicion. There are also those who fought for Popasnaya, Severodonetsk, Lugansk region.

“The Russians are very focused on collecting some kind of “evidence base” regarding the events in the captured Mariupol. We hear from former prisoners that in the “questionnaires” given to them at the beginning of captivity there were many questions, especially regarding the events in the area of ​​this city. Even those captured in other directions must answer them ” continues Elena Belyachkova. “There are a lot of civilian deaths in Mariupol, Russia wants to blame Ukraine for these, it is obvious. But these testimonies, if you can. they call them that, they are often extracted by torture. In one of the interviews, a former The prisoner of war recalled that a man returned from the barracks so beaten that he could not act on his own – he “confessed” to killing nine people. If a person is subjected to physical torture, beaten, the more likely he is to confess, the more he will take responsibility for his crimes .”

Cases without legal meaning

Lawyers say this practice has nothing to do with justice.

“We cannot rule out that civilians may become victims of conflicts, and every such case must of course be investigated objectively and impartially and the perpetrators brought to justice. But can we expect such an investigation to be held in Donetsk or in Donetsk?” To Lugansk?” – speaks Focus lawyer, partner of Umbrela JSC Andrey Yakovlev,

It states that investigative and judicial functions in the occupied territories are carried out by institutions created by Russia, in violation of international humanitarian law.

“They were created in a way that excludes their independence and impartiality,” says the lawyer, adding: “Those who ‘investigate’, ‘support prosecution’, ‘judge’ actually perform the functions of the executive branch and are in fact the only part of the oppressive power mechanism.” In the occupied territories, Russia liquidated the Ukrainian judicial system, turning the court into an organization completely subordinate to the authorities. Since they are now part of the Russian occupation administration, they are simply imitating legal procedures. And this was recorded by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which in an interim decision on the admissibility of the complaint in the interstate case Ukraine – Russian Federation determined that the complaint was also admissible in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions. There is no possibility of legal protection, as in Crimea, and therefore there is no possibility of a fair trial. He described the activities of law enforcement forces as an administrative practice, that is, he admitted that there are so-called courts. “It is an extension of the executive branch, not a separate independent judicial system.”

And if these bodies are not independent, unable to perform their functions, then it can be argued that they are unable to conduct an objective investigation into the circumstances that occurred and to establish the involvement of certain defendants in them.

“If we take the latest report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which describes the explosion in the colony in Yelenovka in the summer of 2022. Experts point out that the Russians did not allow an independent delegation to go to the scene. What does it mean if they are involved in such an important crime that the whole world is interested in, they do not allow independent experts, they throw away HIMARS parts? They distort the evidence. “If they do it in this case, why not do it in other cases as well,” adds the expert.

So, when we talk about assessing the validity of accusations of committing war crimes (and the killing of civilians is a war crime) in such quasi-courts, we cannot expect an objective investigation. Especially in conditions where the majority of military personnel released from captivity witnessed systematic torture.

Important

“It is impossible to obtain high-quality evidence under conditions of torture,” says Andrei Yakovlev. “It has long been established that torture is not used not only because of humane restrictions, but also because of quality when it comes to torture. In the Middle Ages, women were asked to confess that they were witches and “They were being tortured to make them escape. Justice, which wants to reveal the truth, does not take into account the statements made under torture because there is not a single person who will stand up and give the statement that will save him from torture.”

Moreover, in a profession, adequate protection cannot be provided for the accused. Relatives of the military personnel I spoke to FocusThey say that they cannot find a lawyer who can defend them in the occupied territories.

“We can imagine Themis blindfolded. On one side, the prosecutor whispers in her ear and the prosecutor listens to her because he is dependent on her as the representative of the executive branch, and on the other side, there is no one around.” Andrei Yakovlev concludes that “just as there is no independent media or observers monitoring the process, there is no silence of the defense to object. In such cases, the trial does not turn into a brutal farce.”

It is now known that Russia left the majority of “prisoners” in the occupied Donetsk and Lugansk regions. They are all waiting for the exchange, and as practice shows, the so-called decisions do not affect this process – the Russian Federation extradited both “convicted” prisoners and prisoners whose cases were being considered in the so-called courts.