Ukraine’s National Police on May 6, 2026, announced charges against a prison official from the Hola Prystan correctional colony for the torture and deportation of inmates.
Who is suspected
Yurii Horobets, born on June 8, 1978, is a native of Hola Prystan in Kherson region.
No later than June 2022, he voluntarily accepted the position of “head of the supervision and security department” at the so-called Hola Prystan Correctional Colony No. 7, an institution illegally established by the russian occupation authorities.
Case details
Horobets is suspected in two main episodes: the torture and forced labor of civilians, as well as their unlawful deportation.
According to investigators, inmates under Horobets’ direct supervision were forced to perform hard labor, including logging, loading timber, and building dugouts for russian troops on the colony’s territory.
If prisoners refused to work, Horobets allegedly personally used physical violence against them.
One inmate who refused to unload logs was, on Horobets’ orders, placed in a basement cell. Over the course of five days, Horobets allegedly entered the cell daily and struck the victim at least 10 times with his hands and feet to the head and torso.
Another inmate who refused to participate in logging operations was held in the basement for 10 days, while a third prisoner spent three days there.
The prisoners were held in a separate isolated basement cell measuring about six square meters. Investigators say they were deprived of adequate food, forbidden from lying on bunks after morning wake-up, and forced to stand for hours in water poured onto the floor every two to three days.
Between October 20 and November 7, 2022, Horobets, acting on orders from the occupation administration, allegedly oversaw the transfer of prisoners brought to the colony from other detention facilities in occupied territory, including Northern Correctional Colony No. 90 and the Kherson pre-trial detention center.
According to the investigation, the prisoners were forcibly transferred against their will despite the absence of any military necessity, as the colony was not under shelling.
The inmates were later deported to penal colonies in russia’s Krasnodar region (IK-2, IK-14, IK-5) and Volgograd region (IK-26, LVZ-23). Some prisoners were transferred to another occupied part of Kherson region — the Korall recreation center in the village of Shchaslytseve.
Charges
Horobets is charged with violating the laws and customs of war under Part 2 of Article 28 and Part 1 of Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.
Investigators say his actions violated the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and Additional Protocol I, which prohibit corporal punishment, outrages upon personal dignity, and deportation of civilians.
The criminal case was registered in the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations under No. 12022230000005312 on Nov. 4, 2022.