Relatives lost contact with the servicemen of the Donetsk military unit 42600 released from the torture chambers

3 December 2024

On September 15, 2024, the brother of a serviceman of the 110 brigade (m/u 42600) from Donetsk, Maxim (name changed), contacted ASTRA and reported that his brother and about 15 other servicemen of the unit, as well as three “civilian Chechens”, were held in a “concentration camp in Donetsk.” The man added that the IC had freed the hostages and interrogated them, but soldiers were in danger, and asked for publicity and help. Then Maxim stopped contacting the editorial office. In November, the man’s words were confirmed in the publications of the CHEKA-OGPU and Mediazona. The publications claimed that military were beaten and held in “dog cages”, and in September 2024, the commander of the 110th brigade, Vladimir Novikov, and his deputy, Alexander Gvozdev, were detained. According to media reports, a criminal case has been opened against them under articles for robbery, extortion and kidnapping. On November 8, a court in Donetsk extended the arrest of Vladimir Novikov for four months, said RT propagandist Andrei Filatov.

ASTRA has established the location of the torture chamber — this is the location of military part 42600 on Kuibyshev Street, 29 in Donetsk (pictured). This is stated by the brother of one of the detainees in the unit, Maxim, who again contacted ASTRA. Also, the address was confirmed by two more relatives of military personnel.

“My brother was in this concentration camp for about two or three weeks. There were guys in a cage with him with their legs shot. Moreover, some were kept in pits, and some in cages, but the cages are not dog cages, as they say, but ordinary ones. They were chained to a grate and beaten with shovel cuttings every day. I found out about it when one of my colleagues wrote to me. We filed complaints, and one day law enforcement officers stormed this part,” Maxim tells ASTRA. He also claims that three Chechen civilians were sitting in cages with the military.

Information about the ASTRA torture chamber was also confirmed by the mother of another serviceman of this unit, the previously convicted Viktor Mishagin. She claims that her son was also tortured in a cage. However, Victor hasn’t contacted her for about a month, and she doesn’t know where he is. Maxim also says that he doesn’t know where his brother is, he gets in touch “very rarely and does not really tell anything.”

Earlier, ASTRA published an investigation into the torture of Russian military commanders of the 5th and 110th brigades (m/u 41698 and 42600). According to the interlocutors of the editorial board, the commanders staged a real “concentration camp” on the territory of the abandoned Petrovsky mine in Donetsk. It was there that, before his death, the military from the 5th Brigade tortured the American “military correspondent” Russell Bentley. ASTRA also published the first and only video from the premises of this mine. Men who refused to fight were also tortured there, and then forced to go on deadly assaults. Another purpose of the chamber was to extort salaries and payments for injuries from subordinates.

Earlier, ASTRA found evidence of the existence of 20 places for military detention and torture in the occupied territories (some of them no longer exist). And the only one from puublications managed to get videos from many of them. Another torture chamber we found is located in Mulino in the Russia. Current list of locations: