Captured

Stories

“Sasha Was Abducted Back in 2021 in the Luhansk Region”: Nearly Six Years in Captivity — The Story of a Civilian from Luhansk

‘They laughed and rejoiced that they had captured a Pole’ : Russians captured a European civilian and tortured him to death

In the Taganrog detention center, in front of the guards, Viktoriia Roshchyna tried to cut her veins in order to get a psychologist brought to her, according to testimony from a person released from captivity.

“Mom, I don’t want to go back there…”: blind political prisoner Sizikov was released from a penal colony due to his health, then the decision was overturned

«When Andrii saw a photo of his son, the whole cell was in tears.» How two families have been waiting four years for their civilian husbands to return from Russian captivity

Surviving Captivity: The Story of Freed Journalist Dmytro Khyliuk

“He often crossed the administrative border with a Ukrainian passport”: yesterday’s student Mamut Belyalov was sentenced to 12 years in Crimea

Torture, exile, and escape across the front line. How a Ukrainian lawyer broke free from occupation after imprisonment in an FSB torture chamber

The prison guards of “Izolyatsia” replicated torture methods shown in the American film The Mauritanian: the account of Daniil Bulhakov about his three years in the “DPR” prisons

“He Cut His Wrists to Avoid Working for the Occupiers”: The Story of Volodymyr Yakymenko, a Civilian Held Captive for Nine Years

“He Hoped Ukraine Would Bring Him Home.” Family of Kremlin Prisoner Hennadii Lymeshko Says a Russian Court Has Sentenced Him to Another Prison Term

Some People Panicked. I Kept Thinking, ‘God, It’s Too Soon.’: The Story of Kherson Resident Ihor Kovtoniuk, Who Survived Torture in Captivity

“They Pulled Out a Gun and Said, ‘There Will Be No Lawyer.’” A Monologue by Leniie Umerova on Her Abduction and Unlawful Imprisonment in Russia

“Relatives said: people like you should be wiped out.” The story of a woman who survived torture chambers and escaped twice from occupied Mariupol

Historian, You Bastard. Refuse, and I’ll Kill You: How Kherson Resident Oleksii Patalakh Survived a Torture Chamber and Outsmarted the FSB

Neighbors reported them. 280 days of family captivity: abuse and blackmail

The story of a teacher rescued from captivity in the occupied territory by the Main Intelligence Directorate: '20 years in prison or the death penalty'

"If You Keep Looking, You'll End Up Like Him." Russian Occupiers Have Held Vitalii Hamanets Captive for Three Years — This Is His Story

“I died in that torture chamber”: the story of a Kherson resident

He calls torture a ‘spectrum of procedures’ and prison a ‘sanatorium.’ The story of a Kherson man who created the first male network of ‘graduates’ of torture chambers

“He Dreams of Writing a Book. I Dream of Hugging Him”: The Story of Kherson Journalist and Volunteer Serhii Tsyhipa, Who Was Sentenced to 13 Years in Russia

“You cannot give up territory hoping that it will be the end of the war,” said pediatric doctor and Kremlin prisoner Yurii Shapovalov

“We Stayed So the Russians Wouldn’t Feel Like They Owned This Place”: How Teacher Olha Melnychenko Survived the Occupation of Kherson, Captivity, and Refused to Be Broken

Freedom of speech in the occupied territories: repression and new mechanisms of pressure in 2025

Abducted at a Passport Office: The FSB Held a Melitopol Resident in Detention for More Than Eight Months

“You Believe in Your Jesus, But Did He Save You?”: How Russians Abused Ukrainian Priest Serhii Chudynovych in Occupied Kherson

Project "Victoria": The Story of the Captivity and Torture Endured by Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna and Thousands of Ukrainians Imprisoned by Russia

Former ATO Soldier Andrii Harasymenko Returns Home After Three and a Half Years in Russian Captivity

“I Was a ‘Dead Ukrainian’ for the Russians: The Life of a 64-Year-Old Doctor, Antique Dealer, and Partisan from Donetsk, Held Captive for Seven Years.”

“Questions Like ‘Whose Crimea Is It?’ Were All I Heard for Ten Years.” Former Political Prisoner Andrii Kolomiiets on the Maidan, a Russian Prison, and the Basement at the Dariali Border Checkpoint

Transfer to prison instead of prisoner exchange: civilian captives from occupied Luhansk are being taken to Russia

Russians Abducted a Children's Sports Coach from Kyiv Region and Are Torturing Him in a Penal Colony

A Bag Over Her Head — and Into the Car: How the Russians Kidnapped Kherson Student Ania Yeltsova and Forced Her to Testify Against Herself

Crimean resident Bohdan Ziza: “Write to political prisoners — it’s absolutely vital!”

“Antarctica’s Political Prisoner.” The Case of Crimean Ukrainian Biologist Leonid Pshenichnov, Detained by the FSB for Opposing Large-Scale Krill Fishing

What Happened to Viktoriia Roshchyna: The Journalist's Torture, Captivity, and Death

Mom, They’re Here for Me: The Story of Kherson Volunteer Iryna Horobtsova, Whom the Occupiers Have Held Hostage for More Than Two Years

“You’ve got partisans on your hands.” How a Crimean resident challenged Russia

“He took the horrors of Bucha very hard.” The story of Crimean resident Bohdan Ziza, sentenced by Russia for “terrorism.”

“They Performed Surgeries in Basements Under Shelling.” How and Why Russia Persecutes, Attacks, and Captures Ukrainian Medics in Violation of International Law

An Inspiring Love Story: A Border Guard Couple Who Survived Captivity Is Together Again

"I Thought I Wouldn't Survive": Police Officer Tortured by Russian Forces

Betrayed for His Love of Ukraine: Russian Occupiers Sentenced Donetsk Surgeon Ihor Nazarenko to 11 Years in Prison

The Russians killed with brutal savagery

In Memoriam: Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, Who Knew Everything Except Indifference

"They Beat Me Day and Night": Teacher Taken to a Detention Center

"My Father Is Slowly Dying." Ihor Kirianenko Has Spent Six Years in Captivity with Shrapnel Still in His Body After Being Abducted in Donetsk

Tortured Over a Telegram Comment

Survived captivity and spoke out: what Russian forces do to prisoners of war.

"I Wrote a Farewell Letter to My Parents": A Witness to Torture

“Russia Is a Big Prison” — Head of Institute of National Remembrance on Systematic Use of Sexual Violence Against Ukrainian Men

"They Made Me Stand Back-to-Back with Mykyta. A Soldier Cocked His Rifle and Said He Was About to Shoot Him."

Heroes of Kharkiv: Halyna Turbaba

I've Spent a Year Fighting for My Beloved's Return from Captivity. We Saved Lives in Volnovakha and at Azovstal

88 Days in Russian Captivity: How Volunteer Ihor Talalai Ended Up in a Russian Torture Chamber

"For a Year and a Half, We've Believed We'll Find Him": An Interview with the Family of a Missing Volunteer

A Year in Captivity: How Russia Alternately Confirms and Denies Holding Ihor Steblevskyi

Russia's Secret Prison: Around 650 Ukrainians Are Being Held at Pretrial Detention Center No. 2 in Russia's Bryansk Region

Invisible to the Geneva Conventions: Why It Is So Difficult for Ukraine to Bring Civilian Captives Home

“There, on the little star – Kyrylo”: a mother’s story of surviving captivity and losing her soldier son

“They don’t consider you a human being”: stories of women who survived Russian captivity.

After the Interrogations, I Spent Another Week Sitting in a Basement, Freezing, Starving, and Losing My Mind: The Story of a Preschool Teacher from Kherson

“They told my mother that I am an enemy of the people,” – the story of the head of the Dvorichanska community, who spent nearly three months in captivity

Nothing Was Sacred: How Russian Forces Abducted Ukrainian Greek Catholic Priests Ivan Levytskyi and Bohdan Heleta in Berdiansk

A Month with a Bag Over His Head and Life in Detention: Mariupol Director Anatolii Levchenko Tells His Story

‘They made me stand in front of a pit with corpses.’ The story of a Kherson resident’s week in Russian captivity

"They Looked Through My Phone and Said, 'Well, Kid, You're Done For.'" Volunteer Detained While Fleeing Mariupol Has Been Held for Four Months

He Went to Meet His Brother — and Ended Up in Illegal Detention for Three Months

“I heard them carrying out bodies”: an ATO veteran from Kherson recounts how he survived captivity by Russian occupiers

From Detention in Kyiv Region to a Russian Pretrial Detention Center: The Story of Freed Volunteer Volodymyr Khropun

At any moment they could be ‘discarded’: how male prisoners survive in a filtration camp

Accused of Directing Artillery Fire and Taken to a Russian Pretrial Detention Center: The Story of Yevhen Hurianov from Bucha

The occupiers detained 33 volunteers and branded them ‘terrorists’. The stories of drivers who rescued people in Mariupol.

Oleksandr Was Transported in an APC for Seven Days Under Constant Shelling, with No Protection from the Attacks

'A week in the basement, starving and losing my mind' – a childcare worker from Kherson on her captivity during the occupation

One Brother Had His Leg Broken and Was Released; the Other Was Also Maimed and Taken to Russia: What Happened to Two Brothers from Kyiv Region

"Valuable" Prisoners: Why Russia Refuses to Return Ukrainian Military Medics

Torture and ‘Terrorism’ Cases: The Story of Mariupol Volunteers Released from Captivity in Olenivka

"It Was a 21st-Century Gulag": Priests from the Sapphire Rescue Vessel on Their Time in Russian Captivity

"Gangrene Will Set In — He'll Die on His Own": How Russians Tortured a Captured Ukrainian for Six Days

My hometown is becoming foreign to me. — I live in occupied Kherson since the start of the war.

My hometown is becoming foreign to me. — I live in occupied Kherson since the start of the war.

"They Made Me Sign It Without Letting Me Read It — It Might Have Been My Death Sentence"

Priests Held Hostage: A Method of Pressure and Intimidation

"They Opened My Cell and Said, 'The Russians Are Coming to Shoot You All.'" The Story of a Survivor of the Izium Prison

They Were Driving School Buses — They Became Hostages: Russia Has Held Civilian Drivers Captive for Ten Months

They Took His Phone and Threatened to Kill Him: Russian Troops Abducted Mykyta Buzinov in Chernihiv Region