Ukrainian hostage from occupied Luhansk oblast found in Russian prison after four years of torture

Russia continues to incriminate itself through its ongoing torture and imprisonment of Ukrainian civilians, abducted while Moscow was still claiming to have nothing to do with its proxy ‘Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics’.  Kostiantyn Kalinchenko, from occupied Luhansk oblast, is the latest victim of lawless abductions and fake ‘trials’ staged by the so-called ‘Luhansk people’s republic’ [‘LPR’] to be found in a Russian prison colony. His daughter, Victoria might have also ended up imprisoned except that she had managed to flee during the night before they came for her. 

Victoria Kalinchenko is now desperately trying to publicize her father’s imprisonment.  Until recently, she and her family followed the advice of Ukraine’s enforcement bodies who recommended silence in the hope that this would make it easier to secure Kalinchenko’s release.  That, however, has not happened, with Kalinchenko, like most civilian hostages passed over in all prisoner exchanges.  Russia is in flagrant violation of international law through its abduction and imprisonment of civilians, and there are no mechanisms for getting them freed.  Russia has, furthermore, simply adapted paperwork or staged new pseudo-trials to effectively backdate ‘arrests’ and prosecution of Ukrainian hostages imprisoned by proxy ‘republics’ which it fully controlled, yet only formally ‘recognized’ on the eve of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.  The situation is especially serious since Kalinchenko, at 61, is not a young man, and his health has also suffered from the torture to which he was subject.  He has high blood pressure and can almost not walk because of thrombosis.  The conditions in all Russian penal institutions are appalling, and it is vital to get parcels with food, etc., to them.  This, however, is a problem, with Victoria saying that the first parcel they sent was held for three weeks at the Samara oblast post office.

Yulia Abibok from the Media Initiative for Human Rights explains that  the Kalinchenko family are from Briank in Luhansk oblast, a town which has been under occupation since 2014.  Victoria moved to Kyiv immediately however her parents remained because of her elderly grandparents.  Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, it was still possible, if dangerous, to visit family in occupied Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, and Victoira came from Kyiv twice a year. 

She was in Briank when her father was abducted on 15 June 2021.  Before 2014, Kalinchenko, who is a veteran of the Soviet Union’s Afghanistan war, had worked as a locomotive driver for a metallurgical complex.  This stopped functioning under the Russian proxy ‘republic’, and Kalinchenko was forced to seek employment transporting passengers across the demarcation line between occupied territory and government-controlled Ukraine.  Since people could only cross directly on foot, he travelled via occupied Donetsk oblast and Russia.  It was this work that led to the ‘LPR ministry of state security’ claiming that he had been ‘recruited’ by Ukraine’s Security Service [SBU] at a checkpoint on the Ukrainian – Russian border.

Victoria recounts that she arrived on 14 June 2021, with her father meeting her at the checkpoint at Stanitsia Luhanska and taking her home.  That evening, he had arranged to take some pensioners to government-controlled Ukraine, and return the following day, 15 June.  Instead, all contact with him was lost, and it soon became clear that he had been ‘detained’, together with the pensioners, while still at an ‘LPR’ checkpoint.

The following day, men from the so-called ‘LPR ministry of state security’ turned up at the Kalinchenkos’ home with a ‘search warrant’ issued by an occupation ‘court’.  the document stated, with surreal cynicism, that Kalinchenko, a Ukrainian citizen, was accused of ‘state treason’.  Two days later, Victoria received a warning from sources likely to know that she was also in danger.  As mentioned, she managed to escape to government-controlled Ukraine during the night before they arrived to ‘arrest’ her.

Kalinchenko himself was held for a year in the building of the ‘LPR state security ministry’ in occupied Luhansk.  He was subjected to horrific forms of torture, with his captors applying electric currents (attached to sensitive parts of the body) and wrenching out teeth with a screwdriver. Typically, they used such torture to try to get him to ‘confess’ to an explosion in occupied Luhansk which occurred when he was already held prisoner in ‘LPR dungeons’.

It is often difficult on occupied territory to find a lawyer, as the latter are fearful of taking on such ‘political cases’.  The family, however, did succeed in hiring a lawyer, who was at least able to find out where Kalinchenko was, and what kind of state he was in.  They themselves were prevented from having any access to him for a long time, with the notification from the ‘LPR’ prison colony, to which Kalinchenko was taken in July 2022, stating that “short-term and long-term visits are temporarily not allowed.”  It was a lot later that his wife was able to receive a long visit and learned of the torture, etc. that Kalinchenko had endured.  In all, she has been able to visit her husband only twice in the over four years since his abduction.

The situation did change somewhat in 2024, with the family at least being able to have telephone contact with Kalinchenko.  As reported, in 2024, Russia began ‘reviewing’ many of the cases involving Ukrainian civilian hostages, with those who had already received an illegitimate ‘LPR sentence’, ‘retried’ for a no less illegitimate Russian sentence.   Kalinchenko had earlier received a 12-year maximum-security sentence for so-called ‘state treason’.  Since Kalinchenko has only Ukrainian citizenship, the charge of ‘treason’, whether against a fake ‘republic’ or the Russian Federation, was manifestly absurd.  Despite this, and the near certain lack of any evidence, except a ‘confession’ extracted through torture, this sentence was rewritten and upheld under Russian legislation.

After this judicial farce, he and other civilian hostages from the 19th prison colony in occupied Luhansk oblast, began being moved to Russian prison colonies.  Kalinchenko informed his wife at the beginning of 2025, just before being moved to Russia, that he now had a Russian passport.  The circumstances around how this was foisted upon him are unknown, but like the law, such citizenship cannot be backdated, and when ‘convicted’ by two illegitimate courts, of ‘state treason’, he had only Ukrainian citizenship. 

Kalinchenko told his wife by telephone that he is in prison colony No. 25 in Samara oblast with three other Ukrainians.  He wasn’t able to give their names, but did say that one of them was also in the same prison colony in ‘LPR’ and that another is from Luhansk.