Stanislav Aseyev spent over two years in a Russian-run secret concentration camp in eastern Ukraine. After he helped Ukraine's intelligence nab its chief butcher, he set up a fund that bribes Russian agents to spill the beans on their war criminal colleagues.
How do donations help gather more details on Russia's war criminals?
The concept of the Justice Initiative Fund was born after Ukraine seized the chief butcher of the Izolyatsia camp Denys Kulykovskyi. Aseyev accidentally learned that his torturer had been living in Kyiv and, together with Bellingcat executive director Christo Grozev delivered the information on him to Ukrainian special services, RFE/RL reported. Later, Kulikovsky, whom Aseyev described as a "sadist, rapist, executioner, and alcoholic" in his book about imprisonment in Donetsk, was detained. That was the moment when the Ukrainian journalist began to seek ways to capture more of Russia’s war criminals.
What does the fund pay for?
The JIF, which cooperates with Ukrainian intelligence, created a "portfolio" of Russia’s war criminals officially suspected by international or Ukrainian courts for torturing prisoners of the Donetsk camp, atrocities in Bucha and Kyiv Oblast, and sexual violence. Three Russian proxies from the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, accused of violation of customs of war by the Dutch Prosecutor's Office, belong to another category of criminals - responsible for the MH17 downing and killing of 298 passengers on board.
- Displaced art. The IZOLYATSIA art center, having fled occupied Donetsk, flourishes in Kyiv
- Pregnant, tortured, seriously ill: the women devoured by concentration camp of Russian-occupied Donbas
