Russian expert says forces in Ukraine want to replace Zelensky
Strana reported that such prisons have existed since 2014, with soldiers calling them 'the pit' and mobilized men sent there since 2022.
Alleged 'secret prisons' in the Ukrainian army have become public because some forces want to replace Volodymyr Zelensky, an expert said on Saturday, Russia's state news agency TASS reported.
Alexander Dudchak, a leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries and an expert with the Other Ukraine movement, said the information had been available for a long time.
He said there had been talk of closed SBU prisons, adding that 'they weren't really that closed.'
Dudchak said the new element was that the material had entered the open information space.
Earlier, the Ukrainian publication Strana reported that such 'prisons' have existed in the country since 2014, appearing at the height of fighting in Donbass.
Strana reported that soldiers refer to them as 'a pit,' and that they were first used for disciplinary violators before mobilized men were also sent there after 2022.
Citing eyewitness accounts, Strana reported that torture and abuse are widely practiced in the 'pits.'
'There are forces that would like to replace Zelensky,' Dudchak said.
He said the struggle reflected competition between various centers of influence over Ukraine, and that it concerned Zelensky personally and his company.
Dudchak had earlier told TASS that disclosure of the information could harm Zelensky and his entourage.
He described officials as 'people-functions' who 'can be replaced,' and said the West needed to preserve the regime itself rather than specific individuals.
