Melitopol-based journalist Iryna Levchenko, 64, says she and other civilians were tortured while detained in a secret Russian prison (known as the “pit”) in occupied Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia oblast. According to her, prisoners were beaten and tasered, with the guards attaching electrodes to female prisoners’ private parts. Levchenko gave this testimony during a hearing at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, which was documented by the Russian outlet Mediazona.
Levchenko was questioned via video call as a witness in the case against civilian prisoners Hennadiy and Olha Kapralov while remaining in PTDC-2 in Mariupol (Donetsk oblast).
The journalist said she had spent several months in 2023 unofficially detained in a Melitopol building that once housed a psychoneurological dispensary. There, Russian security forces systematically tortured prisoners.
She said her eyes had been taped shut, her legs tied to a chair, her hands bound behind her back, and electrodes attached to her.
“Instead of a lie detector, there were powerful electric shocks — I was jolted off the ground several times, at least five times, chair and all. After being tortured like that, you’ll sign anything,” Levchenko said.
She also said that in late August 2023, intoxicated FSB officers had started abusing prisoners en masse. One of the security officers, dressed in a priest’s cassock, walked around with a spade, asking prisoners whether they wanted to “take communion.”
Tokmak priest Kostiantyn Maksymov, aged 40, Iryna Levchenko’s husband, and other captives were beaten that day. A volunteer named Volodymyr had two ribs broken.
Levchenko also stated that she had seen the Kapralov couple with severe bruising all over their bodies and that security officers had tried to knock out Hennadiy Kapralov’s teeth. She also testified that other women were subjected to electric shock torture through electrodes attached to their private parts.
The journalist stressed that the FSB officers were wearing masks, did not disclose their ranks, and told prisoners directly that they would face “no repercussions” for killing captives.
Mediazona reports that Russian oversight bodies are refusing to investigate the torture complaints because the detention facilities in question “are not documented.”
As previously reported, in September 2026 the Russia-installed “Zaporizhzhia Oblast Court” sentenced Melitopol-based journalist Iryna Levchenko, unlawfully detained in 2023, to 15 years in prison, having found her guilty of espionage.
Who is Iryna Levchenko
Iryna Levchenko and her husband Oleksandr were kidnapped in temporarily occupied Melitopol (Zaporizhia oblast) in May 2023. This information was confirmed by IMI’s own sources in the city. Iryna and her husband have been retired for several years. The occupiers detained the couple on the street, first keeping them together and then separating them.
As per RIA Pivden, Oleksandr Levchenko was released in August 2024. He had been imprisoned in occupied Melitopol the entire time. Upon release he was issued a document stating that he had served 21 day of administrative arrest for “curfew breach”. He was not given back the passport, credit cards, and money confiscared during search. After the detention, he only saw his wife once during a prison walk, but they were not allowed to talk.
It was reported in June 2026 that Iryna Levchenko had been moved from the pre-trial detention center in Simferopol to a prison in Krasnodar (Russia).
In September 2026, Iryna Levchenko was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “espionage” by a Russian court.
Iryna Levchenko has been a journalist since 1981. She worked for large-circulation newspapers, for the Melitopol district newspaper Novyi Den, was a correspondent for regional and national printed media.
Iryna Levchenko is on the Institute of Mass Information’s list of civilian journalists imprisoned by Russia.