The BBC has identified three suspects in the torture of Ukrainians under occupation
BBC journalists have identified three individuals suspected of involvement in the torture of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war in illegal detention facilities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. According to the investigation, all three are currently residing in Russia.
They are former employees of illegal detention facilities where Ukrainians have been unlawfully imprisoned and tortured since 2014. Among those identified are 56-year-old Yuriy Temerbek, 46-year-old Ruslan Yeremichev, and 40-year-old Andriy Spivak.
According to the BBC, Yuriy Temerbek worked for the traffic police in Novoazovsk, Donetsk Oblast, before the start of the Russian aggression. After the city was occupied, he defected to the side of Russian-backed militants. Lyudmila Huseynova, a former prisoner at the “Izolyatsia” prison, told reporters that she saw Temerbek in the illegal prison, where, according to her, he witnessed sexual violence against prisoners.
Ukrainian law enforcement officials suspect Temerbek of working for the so-called “DPR Ministry of State Security.” Criminal proceedings have been opened against him for participation in a terrorist organization. As journalists have discovered, he currently lives with his family in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation.
Another person implicated in the investigation is Ruslan Yeremichev, known among prisoners by the alias “Yermak.” According to Lyudmila Khuseynova, he personally participated in the torture and cruel treatment of prisoners. His identity was previously established by Bellingcat investigators in collaboration with Ukrainian journalist Stanislav Aseyev, who was also a prisoner at “Izolyatsia.”
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has charged Yeremichev with a number of war crimes, including the cruel treatment of civilians and prisoners of war. After the war began, he, like Temerbek, received Russian citizenship.
The third suspect is Andriy Spivak, a former employee of the Russian prison system from Omsk. According to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, he ran a secret prison in occupied Kherson. He has been charged in absentia with violating the laws and customs of war, as well as with the cruel treatment of the civilian population.
BBC journalists have determined that Spivak has since returned to Omsk, where he participates in events organized by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and works in the private transportation sector.
During its investigation, the BBC also found that between 2023 and 2025, there were at least 93 sites in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine where civilians and prisoners of war were illegally detained. About one-third of them operated unofficially—in garages, hotels, basements, and former administrative buildings. Journalists identified another 102 such facilities on Russian territory.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, since the start of the full-scale invasion, about 2,000 people have been held in such illegal detention sites. Ukrainian law enforcement agencies continue to document war crimes and identify those involved in the torture of Ukrainian citizens.
Source: BBC Russian Service.
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