“Forced labor, punishment and lack of water” – a former prisoner about the Snizhnyansk colony

In the Snizhnyansk correctional colony of the so-called “DPR”, women are forced to work 12 hours a day, carry heavy bags of coal, and are punished for any wrongdoing by depriving them of programs and meetings.

Lyudmila Huseynova, a former prisoner, human rights defender, communications director of SEMA Ukraine, told about it.

According to her, in the information space, little attention is paid to the Snizhnyansk colony, although the conditions of keeping civilian prisoners and prisoners there are extremely difficult. Huseynova recalled the story of Svitlana Golovan, a resident of Novoazovsk, who worked as a carrier, in particular, took people to Mariupol. Employees of the so-called “MGB of the DPR” arrested her in August 2019.

Svitlana Golovan spent two years in “Isolation” prison in Donetsk. After the verdict of the “court” (the woman was sentenced to 10 years and six months), she was transferred to a correctional colony in occupied Snizhny.

“We rarely talk about this colony, but I will tell about it what I heard personally from women who passed through this colony. This is forced labor from eight in the morning to eight in the evening. Women there are forced to sit in so-called sewing workshops and sew clothes for the Russian military.

Day off – once a week. Complete lack of water, because there is no water supply. Women carry water in buckets. They also have to carry bags of coal weighing 50 kilograms,” Lyudmila Huseynova said.

The management of the colony rarely allows prisoners to receive transfers from relatives (5-7 kg per month), but this opportunity is also taken away for any fault.

“A date is once a year, but then again, if you “behave badly”, then you don’t have a date. But the worst thing for women who have small children is simply not seeing them.

Svetlana’s youngest daughter was four years old when she was arrested… Do you think that after all these years, this child will remember her mother, recognize her?…

I know that Svetlana’s ex-husband has another family. He managed to take the children out of Mariupol, now the children are with their father in Germany. I know that Svitlana’s heart is breaking, because she does not know if she will ever see her children,” Lyudmila Huseynova said.

On January 31, the second major exchange of prisoners took place after a long break. In total, this is the 50th exchange of prisoners. As a result of the largest-ever full-scale invasion of the exchange of prisoners of war on January 3, 230 Ukrainian men and women (225 men and 5 women) were returned from captivity. The Russians then surrendered 248 of their men.