THE brutal torture prison where sick Putin’s pawns mutilated a Ukrainian journalist has been revealed.
Viktoria Roschyna, 27, endured severe torture in Taganrog’s Sizo number 2 and was eventually sent back to Ukraine in a body bag, where it was discovered that her eyes, brain, and even larynx were missing.
Sizo number 2 is one of Putin’s most notorious torture prisons – dubbed by many as a “concentration camp”.
Before the war broke out it held juvenile inmates and mothers with young children.
But it now serves a much more sinister purpose as a barbaric torture centre for Ukrainian captives, some of which are civilians.
Terrified prisoners are bound and blindfolded on military trucks marked with the Z symbol before being taken to the center, as reported by the Guardian.
Upon arrival many receive a “welcoming” procedure known as “reception”, where guards punch, kick and beat them relentlessly with batons.
The chief medic of a Ukrainian marine brigade who arrived at the prison in 2022, Volodymyr Labuzov, said: “This is a sacred ritual for them.
“With a blindfold on and hands tied, you’re instructed to walk with your head lowered, and every guard present seems to feel obligated to strike you with something.”
But Labuzov said this was just the start of a string of regular beatings for prisoners – during the twice-daily cell searches and interrogations.
The exact layout of the site is unknown but former inmates have identified two buildings as the main torture sites – as they recalled harrowing screams coming from them.
The site reportedly includes various torture chambers containing an array pain-inducing tools including an electric chair.
Another room is said to have been used to hang handcuffed detainees upside down in a foetal position with their knees strapped to a bar while being severely beaten.
Former prisoners recalled the horrific “Putin’s phone” treatment – where wires are attached to earlobes, the nose or genitals before shocks are sent via a Soviet-era battery-powered field phone called a TA-57.
Many also go hungry inside the barbaric prison with a typical meal in the prison reportedly being around four and a half spoonfuls of food.
And the food they receive is sometimes mixed with bones and entrails.
Former prisoners said that some inmates would not eat during the day and instead chose to save their rations for a single evening meal just to feel full enough to sleep.
They also reported a twisted ban on speaking Ukrainian and recalled being forced reciting of patriotic Russian poems.
While prison staff oversee the day-to-day running of the facility, officers from Russia’s FSB security service are in charge of the torture system and conduct the most important interrogations.
Viktoria Roschyna vanished into Putin’s penal hell in the summer of 2023 while reporting in Ukraine’s occupied territories.
She was held captive in Taganrog’s SIZO-2 where she is thought to have been tortured and brutally murdered.
Ukrainian prosecutors revealed that the award-winning reporter was likely tortured prior to her tragic death.
Prosecutors said the forensic examination exposed “numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment… including abrasions and haemorrhages on various parts of the body, a broken rib and possible traces of electric shock”.
Head of the war crimes department at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office Yuriy Belousov said that experts had confirmed the injuries were sustained while Roshchyna was still alive.
Belousov said that the state of the body made it impossible to determine the cause of death.
But he added that Ukraine was working with international forensic experts to find answers.
Officials in Kyiv also claim that the removal of her eyes, brain and larynx is likely further evidence of the atrocious torture she suffered in captivity, according to the DailMail.
It is known to be a common practice in Russia to remove the body parts of prisoners who have been tortured beyond the limits to hide human rights violations.
An expert told Important Stories: “The larynx can be important evidence in cases of strangulation.
“When a person is strangled, the hyoid bone [in the neck] is often broken.”
The expert continued: “Haemorrhages can be found in the whites of the eyes, and oxygen deprivation can be detected in the brain.”
Roschyna‘s body was returned as part of an exchange involving 757 dead Ukrainians in February.
Her body bag was wrongly marked as “unidentified male” who had died of heart failure.
DNA testing later confirmed that the emaciated body, with its eyes, brain and larynx removed, was Roshchyna’s.
Roshchyna worked for digital media organisation Hromadske TV among other outlets.
Who was Viktoria Roschyna?
By Lydia Doye
VICTORIA Roshchyna, 27, was a Ukrainian journalist who reported on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Siege of Mariupol.
Roshchyna won awards for her reporting – winning the Courage in Journalism Award in 2022.
The journalist vanished into Putin’s penal hell in the summer of 2023 while reporting in Ukraine’s occupied territories.
Former prisoners of war held alongside Roshchyna said she was detained in Energodar in Summer 2023.
Three days after being captured she was transported to Melitopol, where she was held captive for four months and subjected to ruthless torture.
In critical condition, she was then sent to Taganrog’s notorious SIZO-2 – where she was brutally murdered.
Roshchyna’s body was returned to Ukraine in a body bag, but her eyes, brain and even larynx were missing.
It was returned as part of an exchange involving 757 dead Ukrainians in February.
Her body bag was wrongly marked as “unidentified male” who had died of heart failure.
DNA testing later confirmed that the emaciated body, with a shaved head and broken neck bone, was Roshchyna’s.
Now, prosecutors have revealed that she likely suffered unbearable torture prior to her tragic death.
