Starvation and Dog Attacks: Ukrainian POWs Reveal Names of Russian Guards Behind Systematic Torture

Former prisoner of war and Ukrainian Marine Vladyslav Zadorin has identified the Russian prison guards who tortured Ukrainian captives at Kursk Detention Center №1.

This was revealed in an investigation by Slidstvo.info posted on March 11.

According to investigative journalists, Zadorin was captured by Russian forces on Zmiinyi Island and spent a year in Kursk Detention Center No. 1. The former prisoner identified four prison guards involved in torturing Ukrainian captives. Their identities were also confirmed by Marian Vatral, a conscript who endured 28 months in the same facility.

According to the Ukrainian POWs, Vitaliy Vinogradov was one of the senior officials overseeing detainees, issuing orders for their beatings and starvation.

Another prison guard, Aleksei Baranov, spoiled and took food from POWs and beat them on the head with spoons. Every morning and evening, during inspections, he delivered 50 to 100 blows with a metal spoon to the captives. For that, he was nicknamed “Lozhechnik” (The Spooner).

The third identified prisoner guard, according to the journalists, was Dmitiy Lozhkin who unleashed dogs on POWs and even imitated barking. He organized so-called “races”—if a prisoner managed to outrun the dog, they avoided being bitten.

“As soon as he entered the floor, the barking would start. We called him 'The Dog' because he barked himself,” former Ukrainian POW Vladyslav recalled. “Other times, Lozhkin unleashed dogs on us. He would say, ‘Run to the end of the corridor.’ If you ran too slowly, the dog would be unleashed. And then you had to run back—either way, you would end up facing the dog.”

The fourth prison guard, Alexey Baglay, who also brutally mistreated Ukrainian prisoners, and now reportedly heads the prison. According to former captives, Baglay was responsible for creating a false impression of prison conditions for prosecutors during inspections. If prisoners complained about their treatment, they were punished with beatings and the denial of outdoor time.

On February 10, The Wall Street Journal reported that in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian prison administrations were instructed to torture captured Ukrainian soldiers, citing three former employees of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service.

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