French authorities have detained a member of a terrorist organization linked to the torture of detainees at the illegal “Izolyatsia” prison in occupied Donetsk. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said the suspect cooperated with the so-called “ministry of state security of the dpr” between 2017 and 2019.

According to the Torturers’ Book project, the detainee is Yevhen Mykolaiovych Brazhnykov (born September 19, 1979), who is accused under Part 1 of Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code concerning war crimes.

“Former prisoners say he served as an assistant to the head of the illegal prison in Donetsk. According to their testimonies, he participated in the torture of detainees, treated them brutally, exerted psychological pressure, forced them to confess to crimes, and humiliated people,” Kravchenko said.

Investigators have so far identified nine victims allegedly abused by Brazhnykov.

In 2021, after the investigation in Ukraine had been completed and the case transferred to court, the suspect left for France, where he attempted to obtain refugee status. Following a request from the Ukrainian authorities, France opened its own criminal investigation and interviewed victims in the case. As a result of the investigation, the suspect was arrested.

At the request of France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, he was placed in pre-trial detention and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Kravchenko said this is already the second case in which a person suspected of committing war crimes in Ukraine has been detained abroad. In March 2025, a court in Finland sentenced Russian national Voislav Torden, also known as Yan Petrovsky, to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of war crimes committed in Ukraine.

“No borders will protect those responsible for crimes against Ukrainians. Accountability is inevitable,” Kravchenko said.