In brief
Russian news agency TASS cites Alexander Dudchak, a researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries, who says secret prisons in Ukraine’s army are part of a plot to replace President Zelensky. Dudchak claims the publicly released information could weaken the president and reflects a power struggle among Ukraine’s elite.
Russian news agency TASS reported on 17 July 2014 that Alexander Dudchak, a researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries, alleges the existence of secret prisons within the Ukrainian army and that forces seeking to replace President Zelensky are behind them.
Dudchak, who is associated with the *Other Ukraine* movement, has twice warned that details about these “pits” have been known for years and that their exposure could erode support for the president’s administration.
According to the report, a former Ukrainian periodical, *Strana*, documented the abandonment of the prisons—known to soldiers as “pits”—in 2014 during the height of the conflict in Donbass. The facilities were originally intended for soldiers who violated military regulations, but after 2022 several mobilised recruits were reportedly sent there as well.
There was talk about closed SBU prisons. And they weren’t really that closed.
In his interview, Dudchak said the reality of the closed facilities has now entered the public domain, a development he aligns with a larger struggle among competing power centers in Ukraine.
The novelty is that all of this has entered the open information space. There are forces that would like to replace Zelensky.
The researcher further noted that “people–functions” could be replaced with new personnel, suggesting that the threat is to the president’s inner circle as well as to the broader regime.
Eyewitness accounts now describe widespread torture and abuse within the “pits.” Dudchak warned that the newfound visibility of these prisons could “harm Zelensky and his entourage.”
The West needs to preserve the regime itself, not specific individuals.
These claims, according to TASS, are part of a broader narrative about “the struggle between various centers of influence over Ukraine,” reflecting the continuing volatility between domestic and foreign actors in the country’s political landscape.
While TASS presents Dudchak’s allegations as facts, the article does not provide any corroborating evidence from independent sources, leaving the veracity of the claims unresolved.
