Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Denis Kulikovsky, also known as “Palich” or “Pershi”, was detained Tuesday night in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.
He is accused of running an illegal prison called “Isolation” or “Izolyatsia” in the Donetsk region occupied by eastern Ukraine.
According to the SBU, Kulikovsky – described as a self-proclaimed former terrorist of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) – took a direct part in the killings and torture of illegally detained Ukrainian citizens.
According to a statement published online by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the pre-trial investigation in this case has been carried out over the past year by investigators of the National Police of Ukraine under the procedural guidance of the prosecutor’s office.
“For more than a year, investigators in cooperation with the Migration Police have been investigating the horrific crimes of ‘Palich’ against people,” said Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Denis Monastyrsky.
“Law enforcement officers interrogated the victims, identified their executioners, and identified 45 members of this organized criminal group. In September this year, material on eight war criminals was sent to court for absentee sentencing.”
The ministry statement said Kulikovsky was taken into custody after police received information that he had entered Ukrainian-controlled territory.
The fact that he is already in the hands of Ukrainian law enforcement officials is the result of the joint work of the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine, Monastyrsky said. “No matter how much time passes, these horrific crimes will not be spared,” he said.
Artem Kisko, deputy head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Donetsk region, said that 166 people who were held in that prison so far had been identified, but this was not an exhaustive list, according to the ministry’s statement.
Kisko said Donetsk police have been investigating what happened at the site for the past year.
Kisko said those identified were two journalists and employees of the Border Service, Migration Service and SBU, as well as members of the Ukrainian armed forces.
According to Kisko, the Donetsk Police has also managed to identify people belonging to various branches of the so-called DPR government, in particular the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of State Security of the DPR, and the judges allegedly involved in torture, harassment and others. . Action against the victims lodged in this jail.
Pro-Russian separatists have been fighting with Ukrainian government forces in the Donetsk region since 2014.
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