Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the occupation of Crimea as one of his historic achievements. After taking control of the peninsula, Russia began systematically persecuting those who opposed the occupation regime, fabricating criminal cases against them, and imprisoning them.
Following the start of the full-scale invasion, the scale of unlawful detentions increased. Two more pre-trial detention centers were opened in Crimea, and Ukrainian civilians detained in the newly occupied territories of southern Ukraine began to be held in them. This system continues to expand: by 2030, Russia plans to build another pre-trial detention center on the peninsula, with a capacity of 1,500 people.
Among the people featured in the investigative documentary is Anatolii (name changed), who was held for about six months in Pre-Trial Detention Center — SIZO No. 2 in Simferopol. During that time, his family did not know where he was and believed he had been killed. Anatolii went through various parts of the violent system created by Russia, and recently returned to territory controlled by Ukraine, having served his sentence.
Nariman Dzhelyal, a Crimean Tatar and Ukraine’s current ambassador to Turkey, was also held in SIZO No. 2 in 2023, before being transferred to serve his sentence more than 5,000 kilometers away from Crimea.
Tetiana Zelena, the sister of former Ukrainian serviceman Serhii Lykhomanov, still does not know where her brother is. He was held for some time in SIZO No. 8 in Simferopol, which recently officially came under the jurisdiction of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
The Kyiv Independent’s investigative team spoke with dozens of relatives of imprisoned Ukrainian civilians, as well as witnesses and lawyers whose clients were held in Crimean pre-trial detention centers at different points during the occupation. The documentary reveals the role of the FSB in the system of unlawful detention of Ukrainian civilians in Crimea, identifies detention-center staff and senior officials, and documents how, over years of occupation, Russia systematically transformed the peninsula into a vast prison.
INVESTIGATION
Two new Russian pretrial detention centers in occupied Crimea form part of a system in which Ukrainian civilians are held for months without formal charges, access to lawyers, or family contact, and detainees report torture and abuse under the watch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), a new investigation by the Kyiv Independent reveals.
Former detainees told the Kyiv Independent that their relatives sometimes did not know whether their abducted loved ones were still alive.
Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service formally operates one of the new facilities, Pretrial Detention Center No. 2 (SIZO No. 2) in Simferopol, but testimony gathered by the Kyiv Independent indicates the FSB has special access to it. The other facility, SIZO No. 8, officially came under FSB control in March 2026, and information about its head was classified.
The Kyiv Independent found that Anton Panin, a former FSB investigator who had worked on a politically motivated case against Crimean Tataractivists, likely remained in charge of the facility despite his official dismissal.
More investigations
