President of Russia Vladimir Putin he again used the notorious Russian gulags to imprison those who opposed him. He was afraid that many people would oppose him because of the war in Ukraine, so he needed a prison where he could imprison activists and even the opposition. Dubbed IK-17, the prison will house so-called “terrorists,” essentially anyone caught campaigning against Putin.

The prison is located near Krasnoyarsk on the Central Siberian Plateau, about 4,000 kilometers from Moscow, where winter temperatures can reach minus 50 degrees. Beatings and torture were reported all the time. The Gulag had torture chambers and an area called the “press room” where prisoners were forced to confess and reveal details about friends and acquaintances who would later be arrested.

They have to stick their heads into dirty toilets

There are videos of prison officers dragging prisoners through corridors and beating them. Some of them were tortured in front of the governor and Colonel Yuri Cheremnych, whom former prisoners said was a “sadist”. Inmates who were popular with officers were encouraged to beat other inmates.

Uncooperative inmates have their hands crushed by fellow inmates on command, while other inmates are forced to stick their heads into dirty toilets. In addition, the prison is located in a place where there is a large and environmentally dangerous aluminum smelting plant Rusal Company. All local residents’ houses were moved.

Some inmates worked at the smelter and lived in dormitories on the smelter site. The dust, smog, soot and proximity to the factory were described as “cruel treatment, threatening life and health”. One former prisoner said: “If you leave a window open, the windowsill can turn black overnight.”

Conditions for detainees have been described by humanitarian organizations as far worse than elsewhere. The prisoners wake up every day at half past six in the morning, after that followed by a two-hour workout outside in all weather.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 43 cruise missiles during the night, the Ukrainian army destroyed 36 of themsaid Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Zaluzhny.

According to the Minister of Social Policy, Oksana Žolnovyčová, the number of disabled people in Ukraine increased by 300,000 during the Russian aggression.

“Currently, 3 million of them live in Ukraine. A year and a half ago there were 2.7 million,” Žolnovyčová said at the opening of a comprehensive rehabilitation center for people with disabilities. She did not specify whether the entire increase was due to the war alone.

“The Interior Ministry showed how a man was rescued from the rubble in Cherkasy,” the Kyiv Post tweeted. “Rescue operations continue.”

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