‘Held captive by his own side’ Russian military officers ran a ‘torture prison’ for soldiers under their command, beating and extorting them for money, relatives say
Pro-Kremlin bloggers are fiercely debating the September arrest of Vladimir Novikov, a military commander in Ukraine’s occupied Donbas region, who some claim has been unfairly targeted after allegedly “stepping on the toes” of drug dealers selling to soldiers. But a Telegram channel reportedly linked to Russian security forces offers a darker account, alleging that a torture prison was established on the unit’s grounds, where hostages were held and extorted for money. Mediazona spoke with relatives of the freed soldiers, who confirmed they’d been kept in inhumane conditions, beaten, and robbed of their wages. Meduza provides a summary of their investigation.
Russian propagandists were quick to jump to the defense of Vladimir “Bely” Novikov, the commander of an assault unit in the 110th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, following his arrest in September. Novikov, now 37, joined pro-Russian militants in Ukraine’s Donbas in 2014 and has since been glorified in a series of propagandistic films highlighting his battlefield exploits.
Actress Yana Poplavskaya, whose son directed three films about Novikov, claimed his arrest was orchestrated by drug dealers as retaliation for cracking down on their trade among soldiers. She also accused military leadership of abandoning Novikov. RT correspondent Andrey Filatov, who collaborated on the films, labeled the arrest an “unjustified detention,” lamenting the absence of Stalin-era discipline to deal with those responsible.
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On November 8, a court in occupied Donetsk extended Novikov’s pre-trial detention by four months. In response, Poplavskaya shared a video of uniformed individuals, claiming to be members of the 110th brigade, pleading for his release. “We love him and want to keep working with him,” says a man in camouflage, his face concealed. Meanwhile, Ukrainian-born pro-Kremlin blogger Yuri Podolyaka cryptically suggested that Novikov had become a target because figures in the Donetsk prosecutor’s office “didn’t like him.”
However, the anonymous Telegram channel VChK-OGPU, which claims to have insider information from Russian security forces, offered a starkly different version of Novikov’s arrest. According to VChK-OGPU, Novikov and soldiers from his unit got into a brawl with members of the military prosecutor’s office at a bar in Donetsk in early September. The following Monday, law enforcement raided the unit and found “actual hostages” who’d been “beaten and humiliated” by commanders (who’d also been stealing their salaries). The post painted a grim picture: 17 soldiers, aged 19 to 40, were reportedly found in dog kennels, subjected to torture. “All of them testified against their commanders,” VChK-OGPU wrote.
“The rescued soldiers said they were lucky because the hostages before them had been ‘eliminated,’” the channel continued. “This was partly confirmed when one of the privates was seen trying to find medics who could send skeletal remains home under the names of fallen soldiers — essentially passing off the dead as [combat casualties].”
Novikov and another individual, identified as Gvozdev A. A., are reportedly facing charges of robbery, extortion, and kidnapping. RT’s Andrey Filatov dismissed VChK-OGPU’s account as “one-sided information full of inappropriate comparisons” and speculated that someone from the prosecutor’s office might have paid to spread such a damning narrative.
‘They beat us with a shovel’
VChK-OGPU published a list of soldiers they claim were freed, and Mediazona was able to confirm the identity of three of them. According to their mothers, all were serving prison sentences when they signed contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry. Six other men on the list also appear to have criminal records.
“Yes, he was held captive — by his own side,” the mother of 23-year-old Aslan Agachev from Karachay-Cherkessia told Mediazona. “They beat him, beat him with sticks… We only found out when he ended up in the hospital.” Agachev’s mother confirmed most of VChK-OGPU’s account, though she noted that they mixed up the unit number. She says her son spent around ten days in captivity in late August, and when he finally called her on September 11, he was suffering from untreated, festering wounds. He remains in a hospital in Donetsk, but she doesn’t know exactly how he was injured. “He doesn’t tell me anything,” she said. “Sometimes I ask, and he says, ‘Mom, I just want to forget it all.’”
Another soldier, 37-year-old Viktor Mishagin, told his mother that commanders had kept “19 people” in a room the size of a doghouse. “Viktor kept telling me they were ‘kept in a cage,’” said his mother, Natalya Kotelevskikh. She learned of his ordeal in September when he called to tell her he’d been freed. “I started asking questions, and he told me how they had tortured them, beaten them, and demanded money,” she said. “He told me, ‘Mom, they beat us with a shovel.’”
Kotelevskikh said the abuse began even before the imprisonment, when Mishagin first arrived at the front in August 2024. She claims that Alexander Gvozdev, Novikov’s deputy and the named co-defendant in VChK-OGPU’s report, “made him search for drugs and even got him hooked.” Gvozdev also threatened to kill her son, saying he’d “write him off just like the others,” according to her.
In August, alarmed by her son’s growing desperation, Kotelevskikh traveled to Donetsk. She found him hiding in an empty house, terrified of Gvozdev. She said the commanders soon discovered him, beat him, and locked him in a cage. Now, Mishagin rents an apartment in Donetsk and is a witness in the ongoing investigation into Novikov and Gvozdev. Kotelevskikh says he’s still being threatened.
“Two days ago, he sent me a text: ‘Mom, forgive me for everything. I’m so tired; I can’t live like this anymore,’” she said, adding that she’s been unable to reach him and that local police in Donetsk told her they were too busy to help.
When Mediazona reached out to Alexander Gvozdev’s wife, Darya, she denied all accusations. “I won’t give any comments — none at all,” she said, asserting that her husband was not under arrest and that “everything is a lie.” After that, she ended the call, saying, “My husband is home.”