KYIV -- A suspected guard from a notorious jail in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk controlled by Moscow-backed separatists has been detained in Kyiv.
The press service of Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) told RFE/RL on November 9 that the detainee was suspected of "taking part in killing and torturing of illegally held Ukrainian citizens," and may be charged with the creation of a terrorist group, violation of the law of war, and human trafficking.
According to the SBU, the suspect's pretrial restrictions will be decided very soon.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian writer and former RFE/RL contributor Stanislav Aseyev -- who spent 2 1/2 years in the separatist detention center known as Izolyatsia (Isolation) in Donetsk before he was released in December 2019 -- wrote on Facebook that "a main war criminal and a guard of Izolyatsia, Denys Kulikovskiy, aka Palych, was detained in Kyiv."
Separatists seized the premises of the former Izolyatsia factory and art center in Donetsk after they took control of the city and some of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, commonly known as the Donbas, in 2014.
The exact number of inmates in the facility is unknown. Ukrainian nationals who were released from Izolyatsia as part of prisoner-swap programs said they were tortured by guards there.
The defunct industrial facility is also used by the separatists as a training facility and a depot for vehicles, military equipment, and weapons.
Russia has provided military, economic, and political support to separatists in the Donbas since 2014. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Moscow maintains it is not involved in Ukraine's domestic affairs.
More than 13,200 people have been killed during more than seven years of fighting between the separatists and Ukrainian forces.
