MOSCOW, November 7. /TASS/. Information about "secret prisons" in the Ukrainian army has now become public because there are forces that want to replace Vladimir Zelensky, Alexander Dudchak, a leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries and an expert with the Other Ukraine movement, told TASS.
Earlier, Ukrainian publication Strana said that such "prisons" have existed in the country since 2014. They appeared at the height of fighting in Donbass and are referred to in soldiers’ slang as "a pit." Initially, they were used for disciplinary violators in the army, and after 2022, mobilized individuals began to be sent there as well. Now, according to eyewitness accounts, torture and abuse are widely practiced in the "pits."
According to Dudchak, information about this has been available for a long time. "There was talk about closed SBU prisons. And they weren’t really that closed," he explained. "The novelty is that all of this has entered the open information space.
"There are forces that would like to replace Zelensky. Him personally, and his company. This, in general, reflects the struggle between various centers of influence over Ukraine."
The expert had previously told TASS that the disclosure of information about the "prisons" could harm Zelensky and his entourage. According to Dudchak, they are "people-functions; they can be replaced," and the West needs to preserve the regime itself, not specific individuals.