The Ukrainians Stuck in Russia’s New Gulag

Mykola Zakhozhyi, a 37-year-old Ukrainian father of two, was taken prisoner by Russian forces from his home in occupied Ukraine at the beginning of the war. He was held incommunicado deep within the penal system of an enemy state for nearly a year, subjected to regular beatings and a meager diet. Zakhozhyi described his ordeal, including torture and near-starvation, through face-to-face interviews from his suburb outside Kyiv, Ukraine's capital. Ukrainian human rights investigators and government officials corroborated his account, which is part of a larger group of prisoners languishing in Russian jails. The exact details of their treatment are not independently verifiable. Zakhozhyi was among hundreds of Ukrainian civilians taken by Russian forces from occupied areas of Ukraine, with relatively few having been released.

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