Three years of Russian captivity and torture in reprisal for affirming that Crimea is Ukraine

Denys Matsola, a civic activist from Crimea and journalist writing for Radio Liberty’s Crimean Realities project, has been held in Russian captivity since he was taken prisoner in early April 2022 while defending Mariupol.  Friends and human rights colleagues earlier avoided speaking out publicly about Matsola’s imprisonment, fearing that publicity could hurt his chance of being released in an exchange of prisoners.  They now see no alternative as both Denys Matsola, and his friend Vladyslav Zhuraviov, have been imprisoned for too long.  The conditions in which all Ukrainian prisoners of war are held are appalling, with most subjected to torture.  There are, however, grounds for believing that Matsola has received particularly savage treatment because of his pro-Ukrainian position, his support for the Crimean Tatar national movement and opposition to Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014.  

Matsola was born in Simferopol and lived there until Russia’s occupation forced him to move to mainland Ukraine.  He was one of the founders and leaders of the ‘Student Action’ students’ union, supported various environmental and other causes, as well as the Crimean Tatar national movement.  After Russia’s invasion, he helped bring supplies to Ukrainian soldiers under siege from the Russian invaders. It was such activism that made the FSB target Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, and Denys later wrote articles highlighting Russia’s persecution of Sentsov, civic activist Oleksandr Kolchenko, and other political prisoners. 

He moved to Kyiv in 2015 , then later to Lviv, working for the human rights organization East SOS and, as a journalist, for Crimean Realities.  In 2021, seeing the huge build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine’s borders and rightly fearing that Russia was planning a full-scale invasion, Matsola joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces.  It was at the suggestion of Vladyslav [‘Iskra]’ Zhuraviov, who had enlisted earlier, in 2017, that Matsola joined the 501st Separate Marine Battalion, which is part of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, which was involved in the defence of Mariupol in 2022. 

Matsola, Zhuraviov and others have been prisoners of war since 4 April 2022.  It is known that Matsola is currently held at SIZO [remand prison] No. 2 in Kineshma (Ivanov oblast) and that he has been held since April 2023 in solitary confinement.  In 2024 he was virtually starved for three months.

East SOS believes that the torture and ill-treatment to which Russia has subjected Matsola is due to his staunch pro-Ukrainian position and his human rights activism. It would certainly be known that he is from Crimea, that he helped Ukrainian defenders and gave the lie to Russia’s myth about ‘Russian’ Crimea, and the ‘Crimean people’ having chosen to ‘join Russia’.

Alim Aliev, founder of the Crimean Tatar project ‘Crimean Fig’ and a close friend of Matsola, is one of the people who initiated a petition to Ukraine’s leaders, the Red Cross, UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and world leaders on Matsola and Zhuraviov’s behalf.   He recently spoke with Crimean Realities about what he calls “the unbelievably inhuman conditions” that Denys is held in.  This is of particular concern, he added, because Denys has certain chronic health issues.  

“Russia is doing everything to try to break them, hence the torture and the solitary cell”, Aliev explains.  He does point out that Russia is applying torture against all Ukrainian prisoners, with this confirmed by investigators and monitors from the United Nationals.  In October 2024, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine followed up its earlier reports, in which it identified Russia’s widespread and systematic use of torture as war crimes, by pointing to overwhelming evidence that these crimes are part of a state coordinated attack upon both POWs, and the civilian population. 

Very little information is available about Matsola and Zhuraviov, although, again, this is typical of Russia’s imprisonment both of prisoners of war and of the civilians it abducts from occupied territory.  The information that does trickle through comes from prisoners of war who have been released in exchanges. 

The situation with Matsola does, however, seem particularly disturbing, especially the fact that he is held in solitary confinement.  Aliev warns that the fact that Denys is from Crimea, and his background there, make his position especially critical.  It is much harder, he says, to secure the release of people who are registered, or who lived in Crimea, or other occupied territory.

501st Battalion

The circumstances around which 277 Ukrainian marines, including Matsola and Zhuraviov, ended up in Russian captivity have long been in question, with Russia trying to claim that the men had all voluntarily surrendered.  In fact, it appears that the men were deceived, being ordered, they thought, to take up a new position, while in fact, being moved to occupied Donbas. According to Maria Klymyk from the Media Initiative for Human Rights [MIHR], it was only after the men had already moved from their position, that they realized that something was wrong. One of the heads of the battalion has since been informed that he faces charges of state treason over this.  

After initially being taken to the Olenivka prison in occupied Donbas, some of the POWs were moved to occupied Horlivka, others to Taganrog and Stary Oskol in Russia.  Many ended up either in prison colony No. 1 in Tula oblast or in Kineshma, where Denys Matsola is held.   SIZO No. 2 in Taganrog was where 27-year-old Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna was held, tortured and, probably, murdered.  Although the situation keeps changing, with men who were earlier tortured in Taganrog now receiving horrific treatment at SIZO No. 1 in Rostov,  Klymyk calls the prison in Tula oblast one of the most brutal.  According to their information, at least four prisoners of war from the 501st Battalion were tortured to death there.  Kineshma is, however, also extremely brutal, with the body returned in April 2023 of a 36-th Brigade marine whom the Russians had tortured to death.

Klymyk also points to another reason why Russia is creating such obstacles to the release of marines from the 36th Marine Brigade and treating them especially badly.  The men are held in an information blockade, with letters not reaching them.  Russia has also staged so-called ‘trials’ of many POWs, with men sentenced to huge sentences or even life imprisonment.   Russia is exacting revenge in this way against Ukrainian defenders, many of whom are from Crimea, Klymyk says.  As reported, one likely reason is that it was the 36th Marine Brigade who refused to betray their oath to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion of Crimea, and who also defended Mariupol in 2022.  Klymyk points out that many of the prisoners of war were, in 2014, students of the Marine Institute who sang the Ukrainian national anthem in 2014 as the Russian invaders raised the Russian flag.  (More details about the imprisoned marines here.)

The East SOS petition in support of Denys Matsola and Vladyslav Zhuraviov can be found here.  To sign it, please open the form here and give your full name where it asks for Ім’я та Прізвище and any additional information (where you are from, your line of work, etc.) where it says Додаткова інформація - рід діяльності та інше