"You could hear her screams; she was being tortured with electricity": Journalist Glukhovska, who has been held captive by the Russians for over two years, was subjected to torture (investiga
Source: Slidstvo Info
Author: Vladyslava Kobko
In August 2023, officers of Russia’s FSB detained Melitopol-based journalist Anastasia Glukhovskaya. For over two years, Russia has been holding her in unlawful detention without bringing any charges.
“Slidstvo.Info” has obtained official letters from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the Federal Security Service stating that they did not detain Glukhovska and allegedly do not know her whereabouts. At the same time, journalists from “Slidstvo.Info” managed to find a unique witness who knows in which Russian detention center Glukhovska is currently being held. It is a detention center in Kizel, Perm Krai, where at least two Ukrainian prisoners have died: Yevgeny Matveev, the mayor of Dniprorudne, and journalist Viktoria Roshchina.
“Slidstvo.Info” also received exclusive testimony from a woman who was held alongside Anastasia Glukhovska in a torture chamber in occupied Melitopol. She said that Glukhovska was tortured there.
This is detailed in an investigation by “Slidstvo.Info.”
On August 20, 2023, officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stormed the apartment of Melitopol journalist Anastasia Glukhovskaya and illegally detained her. In addition, they searched the apartment and confiscated all data storage devices: a laptop, flash drives, and a phone. There has been no contact with Nastya since then.
“She’s such a workaholic—I’d say she’s a highly productive journalist. She wrote about social issues and interviewed people. We spoke when the occupation began; I immediately urged journalists to leave. And everyone acted as they saw fit. Some newsrooms shut down and decided not to publish anything at all because it was dangerous for journalists. We decided to keep writing, but with the understanding that it was dangerous. And then absolutely everyone left, except for two of our journalists who stayed behind. “They are Anastasia [Glukhovska] and Georgy [Levchenko],” says Svitlana Zalizetska,
editor-in-chief of “RIA Pivden.”
Svitlana Zalizetska
, editor-in-chief of “RIA Pivden” Two months after Glukhovska’s detention, Russian propagandists published a report on the detention of journalists and Telegram group administrators from Melitopol. Anastasia Glukhovska appears in this video: the occupiers filmed themselves breaking into her apartment, handcuffing her, and leading her out onto the street.
On October 27, the Russian FSB reported on its website that the “agents” from Melitopol had been detained by security service personnel. However, in an official letter dated October 13, the FSB replied to Glukhovska’s family that she had not been detained.
Letter from the FSB
“SHE WAS TORTURED WITH ELECTRIC SHOCKS. HER SCREAMS COULD BE HEARD”
At first, Anastasia Glukhovska was held in the basement of the “Ruslan-Komplekt” enterprise, which the occupiers had turned into a torture chamber. Journalists from “Slidstvo.Info” managed to obtain exclusive testimony from a source—a woman who was held there alongside Nastya. She said that the captive journalist was tortured.
“I gave her medicine. She said she was also tortured with electric shocks. You could hear the screams. When Nastya was brought to us, she was always lying down. And a guard would come and say, ‘Olena, please keep an eye on Nastya. If things get bad—knock.’ That’s how he asked,” says the witness.
If you’d like to see more exposés of Russian war criminals on our website, please support our work with a one-time or monthly donation. You can also sign up for a monthly donation on Monobaza!
Later, Anastasia Glukhovska was transferred to Pretrial Detention Center No. 2 in Taganrog. Little is known about the journalist’s time there. A friend of Anastasia’s, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the woman experienced weight fluctuations due to hormonal changes. Anastasia also required treatment for conjunctivitis, which had worsened due to poor sanitary conditions in the detention center.
To determine where Glukhovska was transferred after Taganrog, her attorney sent letters to the offices of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast and the so-called “DPR” quasi-republic. They replied that Glukhovska was not being held in any detention facilities in those territories.
“I HEARD THE NICKNAME ‘NASTYA’”—A WITNESS WHO HEARD GLUKHOVSKAYA IN THE KIZEL
PRE-TRIAL DETENTION CENTER Journalists from “Slidstvo.Info” managed to find a unique witness who knows where Anastasia Glukhovska was transferred after Taganrog. This refers to Pretrial Detention Center No. 3 in Kizel, Perm Krai, Russian Federation. According to “Slidstvo.Info” sources in law enforcement, the journalist was transferred to this detention center on August 30, 2024.
“They brought us to Kizel sometime in late November or early December. I got sick. As soon as you woke up there, they’d play the [Russian] national anthem. The anthem started playing, and for the first time in 28 years, I lost consciousness. Then they took me to a doctor and did a chest X-ray. It turned out I had either bronchitis or pneumonia. They took me to the hospital for injections. “I was standing there waiting for my turn when I heard the name ‘Nastya,’” says former prisoner of war Yevgeniy Sholudko.
Former prisoner of war Yevgeniy Sholudko
This was the only time he heard Anastasia Glukhovska’s name in Kizel. However, he adds that screams were heard repeatedly from the women’s cells: “There were women on our floor, because we heard women’s voices. They were screaming, too; you could hear them.”
Yevgeniy Sholudko also adds that the Kizel pretrial detention center had a separate torture cell—the so-called “rubber room.”
“It’s a room completely lined with rubber. No windows, nothing. Just rubber walls; there’s no sink, no toilet, nothing. And you’re naked in there. Completely naked—they strip you. And you just stand there naked in the cell. If you needed to use the bathroom, you’d go in the corner. You sleep right where you walk. The guys there were screaming; they locked them in there one by one—either because they didn’t want to sing the anthem, or because someone saw that they were just opening their mouths without actually singing. So he was in the “rubber cell” for two days, singing the anthem all day long,” says Yevgeniy.
AFTER MORE THAN TWO YEARS IN PRISON, RUSSIA HAS STILL NOT BROUGHT ANY CHARGES
AGAINST GLUKHOVSKAYA The international organization “Reporters Without Borders” sent inquiries to the detention center in Kizel, the Russian Ministry of Defense, and the Federal Penitentiary Service asking where Anastasia is being held. However, it received no response from any of these institutions.
“Anastasia Glukhovskaya is being held incommunicado (a status in which the fact of detention is not acknowledged and no charges are brought—ed.). This means we do not know where she is or what her situation is. And Russia has never confirmed that she is being held there,” says Pauline Mofret, the representative of Reporters Without Borders in Ukraine.
Pauline Mofret
, representative of Reporters Without Borders “Sledstvo.Info” has obtained a letter from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which effectively means that, after two years in custody, no official charges have been brought against Glukhovska.
“No procedural checks were conducted regarding A.E. Glukhovska, no criminal cases were opened against her, and she was not detained by the investigative department,” states the official response from the Investigative Committee of Russia.
Response from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation
Since journalist Glukhovska has not been charged with anything but is being unlawfully held in prison, her family has had virtually no information about her for over two years.
At the same time, other civilians from Melitopol who were detained at the same time as Glukhovskaya are currently on trial. A month ago, a Russian court sentenced Glukhovska’s colleague, Georgy Levchenko, to 16 years in prison for “public calls for extremist activity.” A prison sentence was also handed down to Vladislav Gershon, the administrator of the Telegram channel “Melitopol Is Ukraine,” who was detained on the same day as Georgiy and Anastasia. A court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Gershon to 15 years for espionage.
“When there’s a case, it means the court is monitoring the situation, and we can even check this information online: when the trial will take place, whether it will happen, on what charges, what the verdict will be, and so on. But when there’s incommunicado detention, there’s nothing,” explains Pauline Mofret, a representative of the international organization “Reporters Without Borders.”
At the Kizel detention center, where Anastasia Glukhovskaya is being held, at least two deaths of Ukrainian detainees have already been confirmed—that of Dniprorudny Mayor Yevgeny Matveev, who died as a result of a fatal beating during a “reception,” and that of journalist Viktoria Roshchina.
Earlier, “Slidstvo.Info,” in the film “Vika’s Last Assignment,” traced Roshchina’s journey, learned about her conditions of detention in a Russian prison, and obtained testimonies from those who saw the Ukrainian journalist and spoke with her.
Author: Vladyslava Kobko
In August 2023, officers of Russia’s FSB detained Melitopol-based journalist Anastasia Glukhovskaya. For over two years, Russia has been holding her in unlawful detention without bringing any charges.
“Slidstvo.Info” has obtained official letters from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the Federal Security Service stating that they did not detain Glukhovska and allegedly do not know her whereabouts. At the same time, journalists from “Slidstvo.Info” managed to find a unique witness who knows in which Russian detention center Glukhovska is currently being held. It is a detention center in Kizel, Perm Krai, where at least two Ukrainian prisoners have died: Yevgeny Matveev, the mayor of Dniprorudne, and journalist Viktoria Roshchina.
“Slidstvo.Info” also received exclusive testimony from a woman who was held alongside Anastasia Glukhovska in a torture chamber in occupied Melitopol. She said that Glukhovska was tortured there.
This is detailed in an investigation by “Slidstvo.Info.”
On August 20, 2023, officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stormed the apartment of Melitopol journalist Anastasia Glukhovskaya and illegally detained her. In addition, they searched the apartment and confiscated all data storage devices: a laptop, flash drives, and a phone. There has been no contact with Nastya since then.
“She’s such a workaholic—I’d say she’s a highly productive journalist. She wrote about social issues and interviewed people. We spoke when the occupation began; I immediately urged journalists to leave. And everyone acted as they saw fit. Some newsrooms shut down and decided not to publish anything at all because it was dangerous for journalists. We decided to keep writing, but with the understanding that it was dangerous. And then absolutely everyone left, except for two of our journalists who stayed behind. “They are Anastasia [Glukhovska] and Georgy [Levchenko],” says Svitlana Zalizetska,
editor-in-chief of “RIA Pivden.”
Svitlana Zalizetska
, editor-in-chief of “RIA Pivden” Two months after Glukhovska’s detention, Russian propagandists published a report on the detention of journalists and Telegram group administrators from Melitopol. Anastasia Glukhovska appears in this video: the occupiers filmed themselves breaking into her apartment, handcuffing her, and leading her out onto the street.
On October 27, the Russian FSB reported on its website that the “agents” from Melitopol had been detained by security service personnel. However, in an official letter dated October 13, the FSB replied to Glukhovska’s family that she had not been detained.
Letter from the FSB
“SHE WAS TORTURED WITH ELECTRIC SHOCKS. HER SCREAMS COULD BE HEARD”
At first, Anastasia Glukhovska was held in the basement of the “Ruslan-Komplekt” enterprise, which the occupiers had turned into a torture chamber. Journalists from “Slidstvo.Info” managed to obtain exclusive testimony from a source—a woman who was held there alongside Nastya. She said that the captive journalist was tortured.
“I gave her medicine. She said she was also tortured with electric shocks. You could hear the screams. When Nastya was brought to us, she was always lying down. And a guard would come and say, ‘Olena, please keep an eye on Nastya. If things get bad—knock.’ That’s how he asked,” says the witness.
If you’d like to see more exposés of Russian war criminals on our website, please support our work with a one-time or monthly donation. You can also sign up for a monthly donation on Monobaza!
Later, Anastasia Glukhovska was transferred to Pretrial Detention Center No. 2 in Taganrog. Little is known about the journalist’s time there. A friend of Anastasia’s, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the woman experienced weight fluctuations due to hormonal changes. Anastasia also required treatment for conjunctivitis, which had worsened due to poor sanitary conditions in the detention center.
To determine where Glukhovska was transferred after Taganrog, her attorney sent letters to the offices of the Federal Penitentiary Service in Russia’s Volgograd Oblast and the so-called “DPR” quasi-republic. They replied that Glukhovska was not being held in any detention facilities in those territories.
“I HEARD THE NICKNAME ‘NASTYA’”—A WITNESS WHO HEARD GLUKHOVSKAYA IN THE KIZEL
PRE-TRIAL DETENTION CENTER Journalists from “Slidstvo.Info” managed to find a unique witness who knows where Anastasia Glukhovska was transferred after Taganrog. This refers to Pretrial Detention Center No. 3 in Kizel, Perm Krai, Russian Federation. According to “Slidstvo.Info” sources in law enforcement, the journalist was transferred to this detention center on August 30, 2024.
“They brought us to Kizel sometime in late November or early December. I got sick. As soon as you woke up there, they’d play the [Russian] national anthem. The anthem started playing, and for the first time in 28 years, I lost consciousness. Then they took me to a doctor and did a chest X-ray. It turned out I had either bronchitis or pneumonia. They took me to the hospital for injections. “I was standing there waiting for my turn when I heard the name ‘Nastya,’” says former prisoner of war Yevgeniy Sholudko.
Former prisoner of war Yevgeniy Sholudko
This was the only time he heard Anastasia Glukhovska’s name in Kizel. However, he adds that screams were heard repeatedly from the women’s cells: “There were women on our floor, because we heard women’s voices. They were screaming, too; you could hear them.”
Yevgeniy Sholudko also adds that the Kizel pretrial detention center had a separate torture cell—the so-called “rubber room.”
“It’s a room completely lined with rubber. No windows, nothing. Just rubber walls; there’s no sink, no toilet, nothing. And you’re naked in there. Completely naked—they strip you. And you just stand there naked in the cell. If you needed to use the bathroom, you’d go in the corner. You sleep right where you walk. The guys there were screaming; they locked them in there one by one—either because they didn’t want to sing the anthem, or because someone saw that they were just opening their mouths without actually singing. So he was in the “rubber cell” for two days, singing the anthem all day long,” says Yevgeniy.
AFTER MORE THAN TWO YEARS IN PRISON, RUSSIA HAS STILL NOT BROUGHT ANY CHARGES
AGAINST GLUKHOVSKAYA The international organization “Reporters Without Borders” sent inquiries to the detention center in Kizel, the Russian Ministry of Defense, and the Federal Penitentiary Service asking where Anastasia is being held. However, it received no response from any of these institutions.
“Anastasia Glukhovskaya is being held incommunicado (a status in which the fact of detention is not acknowledged and no charges are brought—ed.). This means we do not know where she is or what her situation is. And Russia has never confirmed that she is being held there,” says Pauline Mofret, the representative of Reporters Without Borders in Ukraine.
Pauline Mofret
, representative of Reporters Without Borders “Sledstvo.Info” has obtained a letter from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which effectively means that, after two years in custody, no official charges have been brought against Glukhovska.
“No procedural checks were conducted regarding A.E. Glukhovska, no criminal cases were opened against her, and she was not detained by the investigative department,” states the official response from the Investigative Committee of Russia.
Response from the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation
Since journalist Glukhovska has not been charged with anything but is being unlawfully held in prison, her family has had virtually no information about her for over two years.
At the same time, other civilians from Melitopol who were detained at the same time as Glukhovskaya are currently on trial. A month ago, a Russian court sentenced Glukhovska’s colleague, Georgy Levchenko, to 16 years in prison for “public calls for extremist activity.” A prison sentence was also handed down to Vladislav Gershon, the administrator of the Telegram channel “Melitopol Is Ukraine,” who was detained on the same day as Georgiy and Anastasia. A court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Gershon to 15 years for espionage.
“When there’s a case, it means the court is monitoring the situation, and we can even check this information online: when the trial will take place, whether it will happen, on what charges, what the verdict will be, and so on. But when there’s incommunicado detention, there’s nothing,” explains Pauline Mofret, a representative of the international organization “Reporters Without Borders.”
At the Kizel detention center, where Anastasia Glukhovskaya is being held, at least two deaths of Ukrainian detainees have already been confirmed—that of Dniprorudny Mayor Yevgeny Matveev, who died as a result of a fatal beating during a “reception,” and that of journalist Viktoria Roshchina.
Earlier, “Slidstvo.Info,” in the film “Vika’s Last Assignment,” traced Roshchina’s journey, learned about her conditions of detention in a Russian prison, and obtained testimonies from those who saw the Ukrainian journalist and spoke with her.
This is an automatic translation generated by DeepL.