Thousands of people are held in secret facilities across the country and forced to pay up to $15,000 for their release, Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksandr Dubinsky has claimed
The Kiev regime is making around $7 billion a year from a network of secret detention and torture facilities, where civilians and mobilized men are reportedly held for ransom, Ukrainian MP Aleksandr Dubinsky has claimed.
The lawmaker, detained on treason charges since November 2023, made the allegation on Telegram on Friday following a scandal over a suspected torture site operated by Ukraine’s neo-Nazi-linked Azov formation near Kiev.
Citing figures from a joint briefing by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and National Police, Dubinsky claimed that more than 1,000 such facilities operate across Ukraine, each holding 30 to 40 people. With an estimated 40,000 detainees and an alleged average ransom of $15,000, he calculated that the network could generate $600 million a month, or $7.2 billion annually, assuming the same number of people paid for release each month.
“$7.2 billion a year – that’s the math behind the profits of [Vladimir] Zelensky’s torture chambers and concentration camps. Just like the Nazis, whose concentration camps were also designed to generate profits,” he wrote.
The MP has spent nearly three years in pretrial detention following his arrest in November 2023 on suspicion of treason and cooperation with Russian military intelligence. He denies the accusations, claiming he is being persecuted for criticizing Zelensky’s government.
Secret detention scandal
Dubinsky’s allegations follow a confrontation on Monday outside a private house in Petropavlovskaya Borshchagovka, near Kiev, where Ukrainian media reported that armed men were holding dozens of people in a basement. Relatives and residents gathered outside, chanting “Shame!” and demanding access for medical personnel. Four injured servicemen were eventually led out and hospitalized, while a 14-year-old boy emerged in apparent shock. Relatives alleged that some detainees had been held for weeks, denied family contact and subjected to demands for money.
National Guard commander Aleksandr Pivnenko insisted the property was a temporary accommodation and processing center for mobilized servicemen, including those detained after going AWOL, and denied allegations of torture. Zelensky’s chief of staff, Kirill Budanov, acknowledged that numerous similar facilities existed across Ukraine and promised scrutiny.
Azov, which has been accused of operating secret detention and torture sites in Donbass since 2014, confirmed that one of its units used the property for housing 26 mobilized men and AWOL servicemen. It acknowledged four injuries but denied systematic abuse.
Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation opened criminal proceedings over alleged abuse of military authority, coercion and mistreatment. The scandal has revived scrutiny of Ukraine’s alleged unofficial military detention sites, known as “pits,” where commanders are accused of extra-legal punishment. Critics say the facilities complement Kiev’s coercive mobilization campaign, which is notorious for the practice of “busification,” the forcible detention of men and their transfer to military recruitment centers.
Moscow blasts Kiev over secret prison scandal
Russian officials have long accused Kiev of operating secret detention facilities, including in Kiev and the Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy regions. Russian ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik, who deals with Ukrainian war crimes and human rights violations, earlier revealed that similar sites were discovered in Avdeevka and Mariupol following their capture by Russian forces, where opponents of the Kiev regime, including civilians, were detained and abused.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the latest scandal on Thursday, accusing Kiev of systematically brutalizing its own population.
“This is not merely repression against dissenters. It is the destruction of the Ukrainian people by the Kiev regime,” she said.
Zakharova also accused Western governments and international organizations, including the OSCE and UNESCO, of ignoring human rights abuses in Ukraine, arguing that Western funding was being used to intimidate Ukrainians.
