Ukrainian women in Russian prisons

“You can cope with anything, just not being separated from your children. I’m carrying on for them,” says Yulia Dvornichenko. She was arrested in 2021 and held in Russia, before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

For a long time, she was unable to speak of her ordeal but now she has broken her silence. Dvornichenko, who hails from Ukraine’s Donetsk region, spent a year and a half in prisons operated by the so-called “People’s Republic of Donetsk,” This part of Donetsk came under the control of Russian separatists in 2014 and the whole Donetsk region was  claimed as Russian by the Kremlin in September 2022.

During her time in prison, Dvornichenko was not once allowed to see her sons Danylo and Mark. She says many of the women being held in Donetsk’s prisons have young children at home.

The women, who worked as doctors, teachers, florists, or retail assistants, were all accused of being spies by those running the “People’s Republic.” Dvornichenko says each of them were tortured in order to attain forced confessions. “The methods were the same for men and women. They were tortured with electric shocks. They stripped me of my clothes, beat me, doused me with cold water,” she recounts.

Russian occupation and arbitrary imprisonment

Dvornichenko was imprisoned after Russian-backed separatists took control of her hometown Chystiakove (known as Torez until 2016) in eastern Ukraine. First, she and her family fled to Mariupol — which was still under Ukrainian control — but her husband died shortly after the move and she was forced to return with her children. She was able to support herself and her sons by taking a job as a bus driver. She shuttled people back and forth between occupied Chystiakove and areas under Kyiv’s control. Sometimes, she says, she took her sons along, “just to get a breather and to see the difference between the occupied and free areas.” But that came to an end in 2021, when the borders were closed.

One night, she says she got a visit from people introducing themselves as representatives of the “People’s Republic of Donetsk Ministry for State Security.” She was then taken away and accused of espionage.

Her son Mark, only nine years old at the time, was asleep but 17-year-old Danylo looked on as agents searched the home. Dvornichenko says the boys stayed home alone, by themselves and the elder brother took care of the younger. The occupiers would not allow neighbors to check in on the boys or bring them food, says Dvornichenko. “My children had no one but each other,” she adds. 

Torture and forced confessions 

Dvornichenko was taken to Donetsk’s infamous Izolyatsia, a prison in a former insulation factory, in early 2021. Beyond physical abuse, she was also subjected to intense psychological torture. The authorities, she said, threatened to put her children in an orphanage. “I said, ‘I’ll sign anything to keep my children out of the orphanage.’ That is why I confessed to being ‘a Ukrainian spy.'” In the end, a close family friend was allowed to care for the boys.

Dvornichenko remained in prison while awaiting trial. Her sons were not allowed to visit her during that time. The most they were allowed to do was write occasionally. Memories of that time are captured in the pictures Dvornichenko keeps with her. “Here is a picture of Mark writing me a letter. It’s so awful,” she says.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Dvornichenko’s concern for the well-being of her children and her own situation grew. Interrogations were designed to break prisoners psychologically. “They told us ‘Ukraine no longer exists’ and that there would be no exchange of prisoners,” Dvornichenko recalls.

In fact prisoner exchanges did take place. Dvornichenko and her fellow inmates attempted to keep as up-to-date on the news as possible in hopes that they might one day return home. In October 2022, Dvornichenko and two other female prisoners were freed from their cells and taken to a Ukraine-controlled area.

Finally together, a family reunion after detours and delays

“When I found out that my mother was part of a prisoner exchange, it was like an extra birthday,” says Dvornichenko’s son, Mark. “We were able to speak via video call and we cried.” His older brother Danylo was with relatives in Russia when he received news that his mother had been released.

After some consideration, Mark and Danylo decided to go see their mother. Danylo picked Mark up from Russian-occupied Donetsk and after traveling through Russia and other nations, they eventually arrived in Kyiv, where they were finally reunited with their mother in December 2022. “I cried a lot. Russia has robbed me of a lot of time with my children,” says Dvornichenko as she struggles to hold back her tears.

She now lives with her sons outside Kyiv thanks to support from an aid organization that provides free housing in the region. Mark, now 14, is attending school and Danylo, now 21, works. Dvornichenko has also found a job at a nail salon. She uses the rest of her time to inform the public of Russia’s crimes against Ukrainian civilians as well as talking about what she experienced in prison.

Support for Ukrainian women after prisoner exchanges

Dvornichenko and other women returning to Ukraine from Russian imprisonment have now joined forces to form the organization Numo, Sestry! (“let’s go sisters!” in English). Together they are working towards the release of other Ukrainian women in Russian prisons. According to their organization, Russia is currently holding more than 20,000 Ukrainian civilians prisoner. More than 2,000 are women.

Three of those women were able to return to Ukraine in August 2025. Among them, Svitlana and Yulia, both of whom come from Donetsk. They too were arrested for “espionage” in 2019. And just as with Dvornichenko, neither was allowed to see their children while behind bars. “I didn’t see my children for six years,” says Svitlana. “It’s really tough when you don’t know what has happened to them.”

Yulia and Svitlana say after their release Numo, Sestry! helped them when it came to getting documents together and looking for jobs and housing.

Lyudmila Huseynova, who runs the organization, was released from a Russian prison in 2022. She says it has become increasingly difficult to get Ukrainian civilians out of Russia or Russian-occupied areas. The organization says it has recently identified about 40 female Ukrainians being held prisoner by Russia. Several of them have received long sentences.

“For women with young children, separation is the worst,” says Huseynova. “That is a nightmare that should not exist in the 21st century.”   

This article was originally published in Ukrainian and translated from German by Jon Shelton