‘I agreed to work with FSB right away’. Where and how Ukraine’s traitors are held
With hands behind their backs, heads lowered, and dressed in orange uniforms, prisoners file toward the canteen one by one. Some carry bags with their own food to the lunch table. In the canteen, each takes a tray, placing a steel bowl of soup and a plate of porridge with a cutlet on it. After eating, they return in a line to their routine prison life. But the Kamyanka Correctional Colony in Zaporizhzhia Oblast stands out. It exclusively holds those convicted of collaborationism and treason.
“I only regret not doing more”
“I didn’t betray the Ukrainian people or the Ukrainian state. I just had my own views that didn’t align with the regime currently ruling in Kyiv,” says Oleh Beliayev, explaining his actions.
He is one of roughly 300 inmates serving sentences in this colony.
Previously, the facility housed repeat offenders convicted of criminal charges. At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, those prisoners were evacuated due to frequent shelling. By 2023, the “vacated” colony was repurposed specifically for those convicted of collaborationism and state treason.
Beliayev calls himself a “simple fisherman from Odesa” and insists he is Russian, not Ukrainian. Entering the room for our interview, he says he struggles with Ukrainian and clarifies some questions.
In 2014, Beliayev actively participated in pro-Russian rallies in Odesa. On May 9, he claims two FSB agents approached him with an offer to collaborate.
“I agreed to work with them right away. In fact, I was thrilled,” Beliayev says animatedly.
He speaks passionately about his support for Russia—his forehead wrinkles shifting with emotion—but is less forthcoming about his specific actions. Beliayev admits to gathering information on pro-Ukrainian activists and businessmen for the Russians.
“I had a wide circle of contacts among Odesa’s city and regional officials,” he says.
But that’s not all. He is serving a sentence for aiding Russia, collaborationism, and kidnapping.
“Why do you think I wasn’t arrested once in eight years? Because I’m so clever or good at hiding? No, because the relevant law enforcement agencies pretended to chase us, and we pretended to hide,” Beliayev claims.
According to the prosecutor’s office, during the full-scale war, he was part of a group collecting data on Ukrainian military equipment locations, checkpoints, and critical infrastructure in Odesa.
“Of course, I feel sorry for Odesa,” he responds when asked if he regrets Russian missiles targeting his city. “I feel sorry for Vinnytsia, Kyiv, any Ukrainian city. People like me live there, with the same children. But I understand Russia was provoked.”
The group he was part of, per the prosecutor’s office, planned to kidnap a local businessman who opposed Russia. Law enforcement thwarted them. In August 2022, they hung a Russian flag on an Odesa building with the inscription in Russian: “Odesa is a Russian city.” That’s how he was caught.
Asked if he regrets his actions, Beliayev says he only regrets “not doing more.”
“I wouldn’t serve time for Ukraine, but I’m ready for Russia”
In the colony, inmates wake at 6 a.m. for morning routines, exercise, breakfast, and, for those who choose, work to earn extra money.
“Everyone gets eight hours of uninterrupted sleep from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. On Saturdays, they sleep and wake an hour later. They have free time, including for sports and physical activities. Otherwise, they can watch TV or play chess,” says Andriy Dniprov, head of the colony’s operational department.
Money earned or sent by relatives can be spent in the colony’s store on basics like juice, water, candy, detergent, toothbrushes, or toothpaste. Inmates are also allowed visits from relatives.
A church on the premises, served by a Ukrainian Orthodox Church priest, holds services every Sunday. Dniprov notes that two Moscow Patriarchate priests were once held here but have been exchanged by Russia.
Hoping for exchange is 57-year-old Hennadiy Paraskevych, who, like other inmates interviewed by hromadske, has applied for it.
Paraskevych was a doctor in a military hospital in Zaporizhzhia, holding the rank of major.
At the invasion’s outset, a contact from occupied Tokmak offered to pass lists of Ukrainian soldiers and their injuries to the Russians. He agreed.
“Those lists reveal a lot: types of injuries, illnesses, locations where wounds were sustained,” Paraskevych says.
It’s unclear from his brief responses why he treated Ukrainian soldiers while aiding Russia. He claims ideological support for Moscow.
Sentenced to 15 years for assisting the aggressor state, Paraskevych says he’s willing to serve that time for Russia.
“I definitely wouldn’t serve for Greenland or Canada. Or Ukraine,” he says.
"So that Russia doesn't forget me"
Another doctor convicted of aiding Russia is Volodymyr Vybornyi, a de facto aide to former Party of Regions MP Volodymyr Sivkovych, who faces treason charges.
Vybornyi sought out Russian special services. In 2017, he traveled to Russia, meeting FSB agents and passing information on an international pan-Islamist and Islamic fundamentalist political organization whose stated aim is the re-establishment of the Islamic caliphate to unite the Muslim community and implement sharia globallyHizb ut-Tahrir and Azov.
“I collaborated with Russian services out of ideological conviction,” Vybornyi explains.
He says the FSB initially showed little interest, so he moved to Egypt. At the invasion’s start, they reconnected, asking him to collect data for Russia.
He recruited an acquaintance in Chernihiv Oblast to provide information on Ukrainian Armed Forces positions. In June 2022, Vybornyi returned to Ukraine to gather data but was arrested shortly after crossing the border.
Asked how he lives with helping Russia kill people, he says: “I tried to avoid it, but civilian casualties are inevitable in modern war. I didn’t want them. If Russia were destroyed from within, both Russian and Ukrainian people would be enslaved, like many African states.”
Even after sentencing, the inmates remain steadfast in their pro-Russian views, questioning Russia’s war crimes in Bucha and supporting Vladimir Putin’s policies.
“I haven’t seen it myself, so I won’t comment. Modern media and propaganda create many falsifications and distortions,” Vybornyi says about Bucha.
He adds that he agreed to the interview to affirm his stance and ensure Russia doesn’t forget him. He, too, has applied for exchange.