Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posthumously awarded journalist Victoria Roshchyna with the Order of Freedom, according to a presidential decree.

The document states the award recognizes her “civic courage, patriotism, selfless defense of sovereignty and independence of the Ukrainian state, constitutional rights and human freedoms.”

“Today we honor Victoria Roshchyna posthumously. She is awarded the Order of Freedom. For unwavering faith that freedom will overcome everything. Honor and bright memory to Victoria Roshchyna,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Roshchyna disappeared on temporarily occupied territories on 3 August 2023. Russia first confirmed holding her in captivity only in May 2024. This marked her second abduction by Russian forces – she had previously been kidnapped in March 2022 but was released after ten days.

News of her death emerged on 10 October 2024, when Russian officials informed her father Volodymyr, with Ukrainian authorities later confirming the information.

The Media Initiative for Human Rights reported that Roshchyna was held in at least two detention facilities: correctional colony №77 in Berdiansk and detention center №2 in Taganrog, Russia. The Taganrog facility is known as “one of the most brutal detention places for Ukrainians on Russian territory,” according to the organization.

Roshchyna’s body was returned to Ukraine in late February, though this information was first made public on 24 April. Journalists learned that she was initially held in Enerhodar and later transferred to Melitopol.

A cellmate described finding multiple scars on Roshchyna’s arms and legs, as well as knife wounds. The journalist told her she had been tortured with electricity, after which “she was all blue,” according to the cellmate’s account. Roshchyna later began losing weight dramatically, refusing food until she weighed around 30 kilograms.

A new forensic examination of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna’s body has uncovered additional injuries not previously reported, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General’s response to a LIGA.net inquiry.

The examination, conducted on 9 July by the Main Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination of the Ministry of Health, revealed that Roshchyna suffered neck trauma, bone fractures, hemorrhages in soft tissues of the temporal area, right shoulder and shins, and abrasions on her left foot. The previous examination had identified hemorrhages on various body parts and a broken rib.

Roshchyna, 27, disappeared on 3 August 2023, in occupied Ukrainian territory. The Security Service of Ukraine and later the Russian side confirmed that Russian forces had taken the journalist captive. On 10 October 2024, the Coordination Headquarters confirmed her death in Russia, with an investigation into her death in Russian captivity beginning the following day.

The journalist’s body was returned to Ukraine on 24 April 2025, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, which reported that numerous signs of torture were found on Roshchyna’s body.

Despite the additional findings, the cause of death remains undetermined.

“At the time of the examination, Roshchyna’s body was in a state of pronounced cadaveric changes with tissue structure disruption, which does not allow establishing the cause of death and linking it to bodily injuries,” said Maryana Hayovska-Kovbasyuk, head of the information policy and communications department of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Hayovska-Kovbasyuk added that the body was transferred to Ukraine in a state of “deep freezing with signs of mummification and decomposition.”

Results from biological samples previously collected by French experts from Roshchyna’s body are still pending, according to Hayovska-Kovbasyuk. Ukraine is currently conducting another examination – a forensic medical-criminalistic one.

As part of the case regarding the illegal detention and murder of the Ukrainian journalist on Russian territory, the National Police has questioned witnesses about the circumstances of Roshchyna’s stay in places of detention in Russia, including investigative isolator No. 2 in Taganrog, Rostov region, and detention center No. 3 in Kizel, Perm region.

Measures are being taken to identify individuals involved in her torture and murder. The article under which the case was opened – cruel treatment of civilians resulting in death – carries a penalty of life imprisonment.

During the latest prisoner swap with Russia, Ukraine brought back the last defender of Zmiinyi or Zmiinyi (Snake) Island. Vitalii Hyrenko returned home after spending more than three years in Russian captivity, the Facebook community of the Defenders of Zmiinyi Island reports. 

“The long-awaited exchange, three years and five months in captivity, for our last defender of Zmiinyi Island has taken place! Border guard of the island of Achilles, Vitalii Hyrenko, is home!!! Free, unbroken in spirit and body, Vitalii is finally back on his native soil,” the post reads.

In a February update, the community shared that Hyrenko’s small son, Dmytro, only knew his father from photos.

“When Vitalii was taken captive, his wife Aliona was seven months pregnant,” it wrote.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War also confirmed that Hyrenko, a soldier of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, had been released from captivity.

Following negotiations in Istanbul, the ninth round of prisoner exchanges with the Russian side took place on 24 July.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that severely wounded and critically ill defenders had returned home. According to him, more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been freed from Russian captivity across all phases of this exchange.

He looks just like an ordinary man who shares on social media how he loves and adores his “wifey” and two kids, takes pride in his medical career and celebrates national holidays.

However, this 34-year-old Russian man has a dark secret.

Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) know him as “Doctor Evil” — a medical professional who systematically shocked them witsh stun guns instead of treating their injuries. Who forced them to bark like dogs. Who refused medical care to dying prisoners.

Social media helps identify Doctor Evil

An investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, traced the identity of Doctor Evil through meticulous research, while Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project translated it into English.

Reporters obtained a list of 177 Ukrainian POWs who had been held at Colony No. 10 from Ukrainian law enforcement sources. Many of them were captured during the siege of Mariupol in 2022 and sent deep into Russia.

Mordovia is a forested region in central Russia known for its extensive network of prisons and detention centers, a legacy of the Soviet gulag system that has made it synonymous with harsh incarceration conditions.

But how do you identify someone when the doctor usually wore masks and prisoners often had bags over their heads? The investigators faced a significant challenge: identifying someone based primarily on voice and behavior, with only brief glimpses of his face.

The breakthrough came from social media. Medical services for Colony No. 10 come from one unit: Medical-Sanitary Unit No. 13. Schemes found their VKontakte [Russian version of Facebook] pages filled with photos from award ceremonies and videos of doctors singing at workplace parties, their faces clearly visible.

As soon as former POW Pavlo Afisov heard the voice in one of the video clips, he started calling reporters before they’d even finished watching, his voice shaking with recognition. “That’s him.” The voice that had haunted him for months—manic, screechy, “indescribable” as prisoners called it—was unmistakable. Another, Yulian Pylypey, cropped a photo and circled a blonde man in a white coat. “The psychopath is the one on the left.”

All fifty former prisoners who agreed to speak identified the same person: Ilya Sorokin, the man they knew as “Doctor Evil.”

“Worse than beatings”: the psychological torture that cut deepest

Prisoners described how Sorokin forced them to perform degrading acts. He made prisoners crawl across the floor and bark like dogs, according to multiple testimonies. One Ukrainian prisoner became known for his barking ability and received special attention that revealed the doctor’s psychological sadism.

“Every time someone passed by, he had to bark. God forbid he didn’t. The doctor would immediately shout: ‘You, bark!'” recalled Yulian Pylypey, who spent 171 days in the colony.

The degradation followed carefully crafted patterns designed to strip away human dignity. Prisoners were forced to mimic roosters: “Cock-a-doodle-doo, guys, cock-a-doodle-doo!” They had to answer commercial jingles like trained animals responding to cues.

“He would shout ‘Yogurt!’ and we would have to shout ‘Danone!'” said Pavlo Afisov, who endured 614 days of this treatment. “Pepsi!” would be met with “Pshhhhh!” and “Who lives under the sea?” required the response “Spongebob SquarePants!”

Why children’s cartoons and advertisements? Former prisoners realized the randomness was precisely the point and that the absurdity amplified the humiliation.

But the most psychologically devastating question came repeatedly, designed to attack their very identity: “His favorite question for all of us was, ‘Who are you?’ We had to reply, ‘Faggots,'” Afisov recalled.

This wasn’t interrogation or even punishment for specific infractions. Former prisoners described recognizing something far more disturbing—pure cruelty without purpose.

“You could see he was a psychopath,” said Nikita Pikulyk, who spent 336 days in the colony. “He got pleasure from this. Normal people, even cruel ones, usually have a reason. But with him, the cruelty was the reason.”

The psychological torture revealed a mind that found satisfaction in the systematic destruction of human dignity, making prisoners understand they were dealing with someone who tortured not because he had to, but because he wanted to.

Sorokin demanded prisoners shout “Glory to Russian medicine!” If they refused, consequences followed. “Best case, you get shocked a few times by the doctor,” said Pylypey. “In the worst cases, special forces would be called into the cell to ‘educate’ the prisoners.”

“Screaming nonsense, reciting poems or songs—to me, it was one of the most degrading things. Honestly, I would rather be hit with a baton 10 times than do that,” Pylypey shared.

Sorokin seemed to understand this. “He gets aesthetic pleasure from the fact that you stand before him on all fours, your hands raised, eyes closed, you have nothing,” Afisov testified.

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Pills replaced by electric shocks

Doctor Evil used his medical position to gain access to prisoners, then administered electric shocks instead of treatment. When prisoners requested medical help, he would order them to extend their hands through cell windows.

“Hand, bitch!” prisoners recalled him shouting. Instead of receiving pills, their outstretched hands would be shocked with a stun gun.

“Now I’ll experiment,” Pylypey remembered Sorokin saying before turning the stun gun to “maximum.”

One former POW Oleksandr Kiriienko described the pattern: “Whoever turned to him, he always carried a stun gun. Yes, the door would open, and whoever had asked for him — he’d hit them with the stun gun and say, ‘Will you ask for a pill again?’ Of course, the answer was ‘no.'”

Sorokin’s denial of medical care extended to life-threatening situations. Prisoners reported being refused basic medical supplies and pain relief for serious conditions.

One prisoner with a rotting tooth that caused “agonizing pain” was denied painkillers, according to testimony.

Another case involved Volodymyr Yykhymenko, who died at the prison. His cellmate, Valentyn Poliansky, told investigators that prisoners asked Sorokin to examine Yykhymenko’s bleeding, swollen ear before his death, but the doctor refused.

“You could absolutely never approach Dr. Evil. He didn’t treat anyone,” Afisov stated.

Deaths in Russian captivity are not rare. Four Ukrainian servicemen died at Colony No. 10—two in 2023, two in 2024. Official causes: pneumonia, exhaustion, malnutrition.

However, former prisoners provided starker details: “My cellmate died in front of me—from dystrophy. He died because his legs were badly rotting and there were heart complaints.”

Another wrote to journalists: “Through systematic torture he died before my eyes.”

Russians turn service dogs into torture tools

The colony staff found new ways to terrorize prisoners as months passed. Service dogs, meant for security, became instruments of torture—with Doctor Evil often present to watch the violence unfold.

During what should have been a routine morning inspection, guards forced prisoners to crawl out of their cells on hands and knees. At that moment, staff released a service dog without a leash or muzzle.

“The dog reacted to sharp movements, and since we were crawling, it tried to grab everyone, bite, switched from one to another. It mostly bit hands and legs,” recalled Nikita Pikulyk. “Because of this, the guys had very terrible injuries—wounds that rot and in such conditions will never heal on their own.”

The attacks followed a sadistic ritual. Pavlo Afisov described how guards would position prisoners on all fours while the dog circled them, sniffing. “The dog begins, while you stand on all fours, sniffing you—legs, butt and so on. And then the doctor just tells it the phrase: ‘Try.’ ‘Try carefully or try as you like.'”

The targeting was deliberate and cruel. “One time I felt this on myself. The dog approached, sniffed, chose a place for itself and bit my buttock,” Afisov recalled. “Someone was bitten, I heard, in the balls. Some were bitten to blood.”

Guards controlled the violence like a twisted game, giving commands that turned medical examinations into torture sessions. The psychological impact matched the physical wounds—prisoners never knew when the next “inspection” would bring teeth instead of routine checks.

“I love my wifey” – the torturer next door

So who is Ilya Sorokin, aka Doctor Evil, when he’s not torturing prisoners? Schemes found years of social media posts. A 34-year-old from Potma village. Married with two daughters. Salary: 680,000 rubles ($8600) annually by 2021.

His posts show a typical provincial Russian. Sorokin participated in May 9 military parades wearing Soviet-era uniforms, visited the Crimean Bridge shortly after its opening in 2018, and posted messages supporting Russia’s military with Z-symbolism.

Professional pride also runs through his online presence. He celebrates Medical Worker Day. Posts comedy skits with nurses. Receives awards as “best paramedic” for “conscientious fulfillment of civic duties.”

This ordinariness reflects what philosopher Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil” in her study of Nazi official Adolf Eichmann — how perpetrators of systematic atrocities often appear as “terrifyingly normal” bureaucrats rather than obvious fanatics.

Sorokin fits perfectly. An enthusiastic joiner of committees and trade unions. Amateur performer at workplace parties. Devoted family man “I love and adore my wifey!” he writes on his Vkontake page.

Who becomes a torturer? Sometimes, just ordinary people given permission.

Sorokin denies accusations

When Schemes reporters contacted Sorokin directly, the conversation lasted only moments.

“Ukrainian servicemen returning from captivity in Russia, who were held at Penal Colony No. 10, identify you as the person who tortured and beat them,” the journalist stated.

“That can’t be true. I don’t work there,” Sorokin replied before hanging up. He blocked the number after two additional contact attempts.

The Federal Penitentiary Service and Colony No. 10 administration did not respond to requests for comment.

Orders from above: systematic cruelty in Russian prisons

The reporters found that the abuse at Colony No. 10 was not the result of individual initiative but part of coordinated policy. Former prisoners reported that guards explicitly stated they were following orders.

“This is all from their initiative. The ‘guards’ said this repeatedly. Like, we didn’t invent the regime. But it’s an instruction,” one prisoner testified.

Earlier, The Wall Street Journal also reported that elite prison guards received orders that “normal rules” would not apply to Ukrainian prisoners of war, with these guards then circulated to prisons across Russia.

Russian prisons were known for harsh conditions and abuse of their own citizens even before 2022. However, the systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war represents an escalation of these practices under official sanction.

As prisoner rights advocate Olga Romanova noted, prison doctors in Russia become “Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia (FSIN) staff first, and doctors second,” reporting to military rather than medical leadership. This structure enabled medical professionals like Sorokin to abandon their healing mission in favor of systematic torture.

The case of “Doctor Evil” demonstrates how ordinary individuals can become instruments of state-sponsored war crimes when institutional structures provide both permission and protection for such behavior.

Not surprisingly, Sorokin recently joined the Russian army as a company medical instructor. His call sign? “Doctor.” Without the “evil” part.

However, his old job waits for him when the war ends.

How many more “ordinary” people are committing war crimes while planning their return to normal life? The investigation into Colony No. 10 suggests this case isn’t unique—it’s systematic.

Healing after hell: Ukraine opens mental facility for torture survivors

The scale of documented abuse led Ukraine to establish its first mental health facility dedicated specifically to released POWs and torture survivors.

The Saint Leo the Great Mental Health Center opened in Lviv on 24 June, designed to serve approximately 1,000 patients annually. The facility includes 30 beds, individual and group therapy spaces, and art therapy workshops. Patient rooms resemble residential spaces rather than hospital environments—a deliberate choice for people who’ve endured institutional abuse.

The center targets individuals returning from captivity, those recovering from losses, and people managing trauma from wartime experiences. For survivors like those from Colony No. 10, healing means confronting not just physical wounds but the systematic degradation designed to destroy their humanity.

Some carry permanent reminders. Others, like the former prisoners who spoke to Schemes, work to expose their tormentors. All face the long process of rebuilding their psychological health after systematic efforts to break their spirits.

Moscow is turning occupied Ukrainian cities into military bases for further aggression. In Mariupol, captured in 2022, Russian forces have established two military bases at the Azovstal steel plant, according to Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, UNIAN reports. 

According to Andriushchenko, one of the new bases was established in the last two months.

“This shows the level of militarization of Mariupol. Russian forces are relocating military assets mainly from Russia’s Rostov Oblast. Mariupol is no longer just a logistical crossroads. It is becoming a full-scale military logistics base,” he reveals. 

Andriushchenko says that each base at Azovstal originated from simple military checkpoints set up on the site.

He explains the location was chosen because it is hidden from outside surveillance, with no nearby residential buildings and difficult access due to fencing, making it safer for Russian troops.

“Let’s not forget that these bunkers and underground shelters once served to protect civilians and our Mariupol garrison. Now the Russians are repurposing them and succeeding in it,” Andriushchenko adds.

The Russian authorities do not care about the fate of the occupied cities or their residents. What matters to them is using these territories as staging grounds for continuing the war against Ukraine.

Nearly all Ukrainian cities under occupation are being turned into military footholds, logistical hubs, and bases for further aggression. At the same time, Russians forcibly conscript Ukrainians, often coercing them into fighting against their own country.

For example, in Crimea, people are leaving due to constant air raid sirens, explosions, and the overwhelming military presence, unable to endure the unrelenting stress and danger.

Russians in Crimea pack up as relentless sound of air alerts and sight of tanks become their new reality

Ukrainian journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko was released on June 20 after more than four years of detention in Russian-occupied Crimea, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

Yesypenko, a freelance contributor to Crimea.Realities, a regional project of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, reported on various issues in Crimea before being detained by Russia’s FSB in March 2021.

He was accused of espionage and possession of explosives, charges he denied, and later sentenced to five years in prison by a Russian-controlled court.

Yesypenko said he was tortured, including with electric shocks, to force a confession, and was denied access to independent lawyers for nearly a month after his arrest.

RFE/RL welcomed his release, thanking the U.S. and Ukrainian governments for their efforts. Yesypenko has since left Russian-occupied Crimea.

“Vlad was arbitrarily punished for a crime he didn’t commit… he paid too high a price for telling the truth about occupied Crimea,” said RFE/RL President Steven Kapus.

During his imprisonment, Yesypenko became a symbol of press freedom, receiving several prestigious awards, including the Free Media Award and PEN America’s Freedom to Write Award.

His case drew support from human rights groups, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, and international advocates for media freedom.

Russia invaded and unlawfully annexed Crimea in 2014, cracking down violently on any opposition to its regime.

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin toughened its grip on dissent, passing laws in March 2022 that prohibit what authorities label as "false" criticism of Russia's war.

Crimean Tatar freed from Russian captivity: ‘Recognizing Russia’s control of Crimea would legitimize crime’

For nearly two years in Russian captivity, Leniie Umerova clung to a single hope: that one day, she would return home — to Crimea. “I thought about Crimea all the time,” Umerova told the Kyiv Independent. “I dreamed of going there without the permission of the occupying forces, without going through

The Kyiv IndependentDaria Shulzhenko

Over 45 Ukrainians forcibly deported by Russia from Ukraine's occupied territories are being held in a basement at Russia's border with Georgia without food, water, and basic healthcare, independent media outlet Astra reported on June 21.

"We are in a basement without utilities: there is no shower or toilet, they don't feed us. Volunteers bring humanitarian aid, but it lasts for a couple of days and not for everyone," one of the held Ukrainians told Astra.

A decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Ukrainians still living in occupied territories to leave unless they "regulate their legal status," namely, obtaining Russian citizenship.

"We emphasize that these systematic deportations and persecutions are part of Russia's genocide policy against the Ukrainian people," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on March 21.

At least 45 Ukrainians have been held at the Verkhniy Lars border checkpoint between Georgia and Russia for several days.

One of the deported Ukrainians has been hospitalized as they await passage out of Russia and into Georgia.

"There were 8 of us, 3 days ago. Every day, more people are brought here and the number is growing. Now there are 45 people, some have been here for a month. There are disabled people and people with serious illnesses," one of the held Ukrainians said.

The basement facility has since 2023 held deported Ukrainians barred from entering the Russian Federation and the Ukrainian territories it occupies.

The held Ukrainians were denied entry into Georgia. Most did not have the necessary travel documents, but 16 Ukrainians with passports were denied entry as well, Astra reported, citing the non-profit organization Tbilisi Volunteers Organization.

"The basement is damp, there are drops of water on the ceiling, (it's hard) to breathe, everyone smokes, they don't let us outside. We sleep for four hours, taking turns. Some sleep on the floor," one of the deported Ukrainians said.

The basement only houses 17 sleeping spaces, but another 100 deported Ukrainians are expected to arrive at the facility, a volunteer told Astra.

Following a pause in deportations to Georgia in 2024, Russia has resumed deportations as Georgia prepares new immigration legislation, the Tbilisi Volunteers Organization says.

Serhiy Serdiuk, a resident of occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, was deported and banned from re-entering Russia and Ukraine's occupied territories for 40 years, the Guardian reported on June 21.

Russian authorities pressed Serdiuk, an educator, to continue work under Russia's imposed school curriculum.

Serdiuk and other staff at a school in Zaporizhzhia Oblast's Komysh-Zoria town refused and were met with threats.

Serdiuk was similarly deported to Georgia, from where he flew to Moldova and crossed back into Ukraine.

Due to Russia's illegal and unrecognized annexation of Ukraine's occupied territories, Ukrainian citizens are pressured to obtain Russian citizenship or face deportation and entry bans.

Pro-Russian ‘peace protestors’ set to descend on NATO summit

Dutch protesters who regularly call for an end to military aid to Ukraine will descend on The Hague next week to protest the upcoming NATO summit, which is set to take place on June 24-25. The group will protest against NATO alongside several other organizations and has urged supporters on

The Kyiv IndependentLinda Hourani

Since 2021, Russian Wagner mercenaries have detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared hundreds of civilians in secret prisons across Mali, according to a joint investigation published on June 12 by Forbidden Stories, France 24, Le Monde, and IStories.

The investigation found that mercenaries with Russia's Wagner Group, working alongside Malian government forces, had systematically abducted and detained civilians, holding them in prisons at former United Nations bases and military bases across Mali.

Drawing on eyewitness accounts and satellite imagery, the investigation identified six detention centers where Wagner held civilians between 2022 and 2024. The total number of Wagner detention centers in Mali is likely to be much higher.

Prisoners were subjected to systematic torture – including beatings, waterboarding, electric shocks, starvation, and confinement in sweltering metal containers.

The investigation was carried out as part of the Viktoriia project, in memory of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who was captured by Russian forces in 2023 while investigating the illegal detention of civilians in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. She was killed in Russian captivity in 2024.

The Russian mercenary group, known for its deployment in Ukraine and short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin in 2023, has a strong presence across the African continent, backing Russian business interests and Moscow-friendly regimes.

The mercenaries have been particularly active in Mali since late 2021 and have been accused of perpetrating war crimes. In December 2024, Human Rights Watch accused Wagner mercenaries and Malian government forces of deliberately killing 32 civilians.

The Wagner Group recently announced its withdrawal from Mali, where it fought alongside Malian government forces to fend off Islamist insurgents. Wagner has been active across the African continent for years and has been previously accused of committing human rights abuses.

Ukraine war latest: Ukraine strikes targets in Russia, including gunpowder plant

Key developments on June 11: * Ukrainian drones strike targets in Russia, including gunpowder plant, General Staff says * Zelensky urges ‘stronger’ EU sanctions on Russia, lower oil price cap * Ukraine repatriates bodies of 1,212 fallen soldiers * Ukraine’s SBU releases fresh video of Operation Spiderweb, teases ‘new surprises’ * NATO summit statement

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk