The New Yorker profiles Ukrainian women held in a Russian detention cell in Rostov
The New Yorker has published a report on Ukrainian women held at a pretrial detention center in Rostov, Russia. Meduza retells the stories of two of them, Valentina Zayarnaya and Natalia Vlasova.
Since 2014, and especially since 2022, Russia has detained at least 1,878 Ukrainian civilians — a confirmed figure that is likely an undercount. At least 223 of those held are women. Unlike prisoners of war, civilian detainees have little chance of release through an exchange, since Russia and Ukraine do not swap civilians the way they swap military captives.
The New Yorker's Joshua Yaffa corresponded with women still held at Rostov pretrial detention center No. 1 and spoke with former inmates for a lengthy feature. Meduza retells the stories of two of the women.
Valentina Zayarnaya
A 66-year-old English teacher from Amvrosiivka, near Donetsk, helped a man she knew as "Dima" escape from Mariupol in 2022. He was actually Denys Storozhuk, a Ukrainian border guard who had hidden inside the Azovstal plant. He lied to her, claiming he had not taken part in the fighting, and lived with her for nearly a year.
When Zayarnaya went to pick up a package containing a forged passport for him, FSB officers arrested her on the spot. The investigation revealed Storozhuk was a Ukrainian military lieutenant colonel who had fought at Azovstal. Zayarnaya was accused of helping him plan an assassination attempt against a so-called "DNR" lawmaker and was sentenced to 12 years. According to her account, FSB officers beat her son during the investigation to coerce testimony; she signed a confession and later attempted suicide. Storozhuk was exchanged in the fall of 2024 before trial and later sentenced in absentia to 22 years.
Natalia Vlasova
Vlasova, 44, has been in custody for more than seven years. In 2018 she agreed to a request from an SBU acquaintance to travel to Donetsk, hoping for help with a drug-possession case against her. She was later detained trying to enter "DNR"-controlled territory on a forged passport and taken to Izolyatsia, a secret prison in Donetsk, where she was tortured for months, including with electric shocks, with a doctor present during the sessions.
In court, Vlasova recanted her earlier statements, saying they had been extracted under torture, but she was nonetheless sentenced to 18 years, including for an alleged assassination attempt against the man she said had tortured her. At the Rostov detention center, she has watched other women be released for years while she remains behind. Her 11-year-old daughter, Yulia, lives with her father in Kyiv and last year joined a rally on Independence Square drawing attention to Ukrainian women imprisoned in Russia.
