'When Suicide Becomes Logical': Inside A Separatist-Run Prison In Ukraine's Donetsk

By Stanislav Aseyev

Stanislav Aseyev, 30, is a journalist, blogger, and member of the Ukrainian PEN Club. After his native city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, fell under the control of Russia-backed separatist militants in May 2014, he continued reporting from there for various Ukrainian media, including RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.

On June 2, 2017, he was abducted by the self-proclaimed Donetsk authorities. His case prompted an international outcry among human rights and journalists' organizations.

In October 2019, a de facto court in Donetsk convicted Aseyev of "organizing an extremist organization" and espionage, sentencing him to 15 years in prison. He was included in a prisoner exchange between the separatists and Kyiv on November 15, 2019.

In all, Aseyev spent 962 days in captivity, most of it at a prison in Donetsk called Isolation. During his captivity, he began writing a book describing his experiences, but the first manuscript was confiscated. He began writing a second time. When he was released in the prisoner exchange, a fellow prisoner, tank crewman Bohdan Pantyushenko, helped Aseyev smuggle out the manuscript by hiding it among the letters he'd received from his wife.

RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service is publishing Aseyev's manuscript in Russian. Here, RFE/RL presents an excerpt in English.

Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (click to enlarge):