Police have charged the militants who tortured volunteer Iryna Dovhan

Ukrainian law enforcement officials have charged two militants from the illegal armed group “Vostok” with torturing volunteer Iryna Dovhan in 2014. She was tied to a pole in a square in occupied Donetsk and publicly humiliated for helping the Ukrainian military. 

According to the investigation, the suspects are Saydash Zakayev from the Chechen Republic and Mairbeg Pliev from North Ossetia. Information provided by specialists from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense helped identify them.

Charges were filed under Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—cruel treatment of the civilian population committed by a group of individuals. The penalty under this article provides for up to 15 years in prison.

According to the “Book of Executioners,” both militants were killed during the Russian-Ukrainian war, so the charges were brought posthumously.

The National Police reported that there are currently five suspects in the case, three of whom have already been notified of the charges. According to the investigation, three of the suspects may be dead, but there is no official documentary confirmation of this. Charges are being prepared against the other two.

The case was transferred to investigators in 2023 and classified as unlawful deprivation of liberty. During the investigation, conflict-related sexual violence was also uncovered.

In 2014, Iryna Dovhan provided financial assistance, clothing, and food to Ukrainian soldiers. The occupiers detained her and tortured her for five days.

Afterward, the volunteer was tied to a pole in the center of Donetsk with a sign reading, “She kills our children. An accomplice of the punitive forces.” The militants beat her and forced her to shout “Sieg Heil,” while people in the square joined in the abuse.

Brazilian journalist Mauricio Lima accidentally photographed the abuse, after which international human rights activists sounded the alarm. The militants then released Dovgan.

This was reported by the National Police and the Office of the Prosecutor General.

The occupier who took a civilian hostage in Kupiansk was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Sergei Karpilovich, a soldier in the Russian Armed Forces, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for systematically raping a 57-year-old civilian woman for over two months in the occupied village in the Pokrovsk district of Donetsk Oblast.