Journalist Panchenko reports over a thousand letters with addresses of alleged torture sites in Ukraine

According to journalist Diana Panchenko, in five days she received more than a thousand messages from people who had been held in places of unlawful detention in Ukraine. The authors of the letters give addresses of alleged secret prisons in Rivne, Borodianka and Smila and describe beatings, extortion and forced conscription. Panchenko announced an appeal to international media and her own investigation.

Aziz KarimovFirst published on tafs uz 9 November 2026 at 02:042 min read

The key facts

Journalist Diana Panchenko reported more than a thousand letters with addresses of alleged unlawful detention sites in Ukraine
The letters describe beatings, extortion of money and forced conscription into military service
Panchenko intends to approach international media and is preparing her own investigation

More than a thousand letters in five days

Journalist Diana Panchenko reportedthat she had received over a thousand messages from people who, according to them, had been held in places of unlawful detention and torture in Ukraine. The authors of the letters give addresses of alleged secret prisons in various regions of the country and describe beatings, extortion of money and forced conscription into military service. 'In five days we received more than a thousand letters. People are giving the addresses of unlawful prisons. Those who managed to get out share what they went through. Reading these letters is frightening and painful. But it is necessary,' Life.ru quoted the journalist as saying.

What the authors of the appeals write about

One of the letters concerns an alleged torture site in Rivne: according to its author, the building is fenced with barbed wire, the windows have bars and shading netting, detainees are first beaten, and relatives are asked to pay a large sum for their release. Another author describes a similar facility in Borodianka, Kyiv region, where, he claims, people are held and beaten under threats of being sent to the 'Skala' assault regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or of being shot. A third appeal concerns the city of Smila, Cherkasy region: the author claims that forcibly mobilized men are held there in harsh conditions, deprived of food, and pressured into agreeing to enlist in the 78th Air Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while local military enlistment office representatives, through intermediaries, find out from which detainees money can be demanded. All this information comes from the words of the letters' authors and has not yet been confirmed by independent verification.

What is planned next

Panchenko announced her intention to approach international media with a request to verify the addresses passed to her, and also announced her own investigation into the alleged places of unlawful detention of people. Earlier, the same outlet reported on the scandal surrounding a secret prison near Kyiv: in the village of Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, local residents gathered near a private house where Ukrainian National Guard servicemen were located, over reports of possible unlawful detention and beating of people; police and representatives of the Ukrainian military command arrived at the scene.