The director of Russia’s notorious Taganrog prison, where officials are accused of overseeing the systematic torture and starvation of hundreds of Ukrainian detainees, has been notified by authorities in Kyiv that he is suspected of having committed a war crime.
Ukraine’s national police service and its chief war crimes prosecutor announced on Thursday that Aleksandr Shtoda, head of the Sizo 2 pre-trial detention centre in Taganrog, had been formally placed under investigation.
Shtoda was identified by the Viktoriia Project, an investigation by the Guardian and other reporting partners into the death in Russian captivity of the journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who was seized while working undercover in the occupied territories and transferred to Taganrog, where she spent nearly nine months.
She was last seen alive on 8 September 2024, and her body was repatriated earlier this year. Ukrainian investigators are still working to identify exactly where and how she died, although her remains showed numerous signs of torture. The announcement comes before Roshchyna’s funeral in Kyiv on Friday, and follows a decision by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to posthumously award her the Order of Freedom.
Shtoda took over as head the prison, which lies near the border with occupied Ukraine, in October 2022, having previously worked there in management roles. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Sizo 2 was transformed from a facility holding juvenile inmates and mothers with babies to a torture centre for prisoners of war.
In a statement, Ukraine’s national police service alleged: “During the period of the suspect’s leadership in Sizo No 2 in Taganrog, Rostov region, a system of repressive treatment of illegally detained Ukrainian citizens, including civilians, was organised.”
They said their investigation, with operational support from other agencies including the intelligence services at the defence ministry, had found Roshchyna was “subjected to systematic torture, humiliation, threats, severe restrictions on access to medical care, drinking water and food, and was deprived of the opportunity to sleep or sit during the day”. They also found she “was subjected to physical punishment and psychological pressure” to cooperate by her captors at Taganrog.
Police claimed Shtoda “personally gave orders to his subordinates to apply physical and moral pressure” to Roshchyna. “Being aware of her civilian status and the protection guaranteed by international humanitarian law, he deliberately violated the norms of the Geneva convention and other international treaties.”
They concluded: “The actions of the defendant were qualified as a war crime in accordance with international standards.”
The police statement was accompanied by photographs of Shtoda, although by convention did not refer to him by name.
He was named in a video statement released on the same day by the prosecutor in charge of Roshchyna’s case, Yurii Bielousov, who said: “By his actions, Aleksandr Shtoda committed a war crime in the form of ill-treatment of a civilian, for which he is liable under part 1 of article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to 12 years. The investigation into this crime is ongoing and will identify all those involved in its commission.”
A notice of suspicion is a formal document issued by law enforcement or a prosecutor to inform a person that they are officially suspected of committing a crime, and marks the beginning of the pre-trial investigation phase. Prosecutors may subsequently charge the individual, and a judge will then decide whether to proceed to trial. Those not physically in Ukraine can be prosecuted in absentia.
Reporters Without Borders, which campaigns to protect journalists, welcomed the announcement as a “first step towards justice”. They added: “It is time for all those responsible for her death to be identified and held accountable. Their silence is unbearable.”
Shtoda has been approached for comment.
