Russia acknowledges part in torture and rape through ‘trial’ and horrific sentences against three Donbas hostages

Russia’s Southern District Military Court has passed 18-22-year sentences against three Ukrainians, including the mother of a very small child.  Natalia Vlasova (b. 1981); Serhiy Hruzynov (b. 1974) and Victor Shydlovsky (n. 1972) were tried under Russia’s flawed ‘terrorism’ allegation, although all were seized in occupied Donbas back in 2018-19, while Russia was pretending that the events in Donbas were a ‘civil war’ and that it was a mere ‘observer’.  It is typical that the only ‘evidence’ to back Russia’s claims that the Ukrainians had planned to kill Vasyl Yevdokimov [‘Lenin’], a key figure in Russia’s Izolyatsia secret torture prison came from videoed ‘confessions’ which all retracted as extracted through torture.

Natalia Vlasova has provided a harrowing description of the torture she endured, which included her teeth being filed down by Yevdokimov, the individual treated as the ‘victim’ in her ‘trial’, and electric currents attached to parts of her body.  She calls them maniacs and says that she could find no other word to describe such creatures.  Not every person would “be capable of taking pleasure from causing pain to a naked and bound woman, and of committing all kinds of other perversions. <> Yevdokimov himself filed down my teeth with a nailfile, twisted my nipples and tried to push a bottle into my vagina. I would remind you that this is the person who is your victim” 

Her torturers “undressed me and bound me with scotch tape, poured water over me and turned on the current.  If I didn’t scream enough, they increased the current and the shocks became even more intense. They needed a reaction. I didn’t understand that straight away, then when I screamed loud enough, I heard their satisfied voices.”

After those forms of torture, she was bound, with her hands raised, in a tiny enclosed space and forced to stand in that position all night, or in a tiny room in the basement where you could only sit or stand.  It was desperately cold and they only left her a small amount of water.

Natalia was also systematically raped and speaks of fifteen men arriving to use her in this way. As if their torture of her were not enough, they claimed to know where her small daughter went to kindergarten and threatened to bring her a toy containing explosives

Both Hruzynov and Shydlovsky also stated clearly to the court that they too had been tortured.  This was, among other things, how the videoed ‘confessions’ shown on Russian propaganda television had been extracted.

This was totally ignored by ‘judge’ Oleg Aleksandrovich Cherepov from the Southern District Military Court.  Nor was any heed paid to the fact that all three defendants had been seized in the so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [‘DPR]] at a time when this illegal structure was not even formally recognized by Russia.  Hruzynov had been imprisoned since December 2018, Vlasova and Shydlovsky since March 2019. There could, therefore, be no justification for laying charges against the Ukrainians under Russian legislation.

Russian charges and ‘trial’

The ‘trial’, which began in June 2023, was, officially, of six people, one of whom, Andriy Borzunov, died before sentences were passed.  He and two other men – Giya Kalanadze and Maksym Vorona, had been seized later and then released under a signed undertaking.  Kalanadze and Vorona were sentenced to 6 and 5.5 years, respectively, and taken into custody in the courtroom.  Much less is known about them, including even their nationality, with MediaZona reporting that Kalanadze, Vorona and Borzunov had passports of Russia’s proxy ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ and had later received Russian citizenship.   

The three were, like Vlasova, Hruzynov and Shydlovsky, charged with ‘involvement in a terrorist organization’ under Article 205.4 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code.  The sentences against Kalanadze and Vorona were, however, lower than those envisaged by this very widely abused norm of Russian legislation.

The story around Russia’s persecution of Serhiy Hruzynov; Victor Shydlovsky and Natalia Vlasova dates back to 2021 when the two men were shown on Russian state TV in a program presented by Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s chief propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov. A separate propaganda feature was shown with Vlasova which the latter confirmed in court that she had been tortured into making.

It is unclear what exactly the ‘terrorist organization’ that the three Ukrainians were supposed to have been involved in, but all were also charged with illegal possession of weapons (Article 222), illegally ‘crossing the border’ as a group (Article 322 § 3) and planning an attack on an enforcement official (Article 317 and 30 § 1)   For some reason, Vlasova and Hruzynov, but not Shydlovsky, were charged with ‘spying’, under Article 276.  Vlasova and Shydlovsky were charged with the use of fake passports, under Article 327 § 3. 

The chief claim was that the three had, on instructions from Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU], planned to kill Vasyl Yevdokimov, known as ‘Lenin’   The latter is described, most euphemistically, as “one of the leading employees of the republic’s ministry of state security’. Vlasova and Shydlovsky were also accused of planning to kill the convoy men who had previously transported Hruzynov.  

Yevdokimov was, undoubtedly, a legitimate target for Ukraine’s Security Service and Armed Forces.  Since Russia had consistently claimed to have nothing to do with the conflict in Donbas, and denies to this day the existence of the notorious Izolyatsia secret torture prison, this ‘trial’ is a legal absurdity.

As their lawyers pointed out in court, the only ‘proof’ presented was from videoed ‘confessions’ that the three retracted as extracted through torture.  Important to note that the accounts given of torture correspond closely to those given by many other inmates of Izolyatsia and other victims of Russian and Russian-controlled torture. Vlasova’s account has also been corroborated by a fellow prisoner who has since been released.

Vlasova, Hruzynov and Shydlovsky all denied any involvement in plans to kill anybody.  Shydlovsky and Vlasova admitted only to the charge of using fake documents.  Vlasova was strongly dismissive of the charges, pointing out that “in 2019 the existence of DPR’ had not been recognized by Russia or anyone”…<>  I did not cross into the territory of the Russian Federation.  While on Ukrainian territory, I obeyed the security service of my own country.  I did not take part in any terrorist organization and most certainly did not join one, as claimed in the indictment.”

The Southern District Military Court has been passing sentences against Ukrainian political prisoners, civilian hostages and prisoners of war since 2014, and ‘judge’ Oleg Aleksandrovich Cherepov was almost certainly chosen for his willingness to provide the sentences demanded of him.  On 24 December 2024, he sentenced Serhiy Hruzynov to 20 years and Victor Shydlovsky to 22 years, with both in a maximum-security [‘harsh-regime’) prison colony.   Natalia Vlasova whose daughter, Yulia is only five years old, was sentenced to 18 years’ in a medium-security prison colony.