The "Schemes" investigative team of the Ukrainian service of "Radio Liberty" has established the identity of the doctor who, according to prisoners of war from Ukraine, tortured people in penal colony No. 10 in Mordovia, Western Russia. This is 34-year-old Ilya Sorokin, an employee of the Medical and Sanitary Unit 13, which serves the colony.
From sources in law enforcement agencies, the "Schemes" team has received data on 177 Ukrainian prisoners of war who managed to return from colony No. 10. The first prisoners from Ukraine were brought there on June 26, 2022, and six months later - in February 2023 - 109 prisoners were transferred to the colony at once.
The journalists found several former prisoners who were in Mordovia at that time. They told about a doctor who mistreated them instead of providing them with proper medical care. The prisoners did not know his real name, only some of them had seen his face, and most had only heard his voice. Among themselves, they called him "Doctor Evil". He regularly resorted to physical and psychological violence, used a stun gun, beat them, humiliated them, including sexually, and denied them medical care, former prisoners say.
"In a doctor's coat, but extremely cruel"
Pavel Afisov, an officer from the 36th Brigade of the Ukrainian Marine Corps, who was in the colony for a year and a half, told how the doctor regularly forced him to crawl or jump with an stun gun, shouting lyrics to Russian songs.
"He experienced aesthetic pleasure from the fact that you were standing in front of him on your knees, with your hands raised, helpless, your eyes closed, and he was kicking you between your legs, hitting you in the diaphragm, in the liver, using a rubber baton and a stun gun. "He also said that people like us should be subjected to genocide," the soldier recalled, quoted by "Radio Liberty".
Another released marine from the 36th brigade, Oleksandr Savov, also says that he was denied proper treatment and was subjected to abuse. "A man in a white coat stopped me and I thought he was a doctor. I told him that I suspected tuberculosis and thought he would provide me with treatment. And he shocked me with an electric shock, and more than once, and then said to me: "Keep screaming and cursing me", although I was silent. I apologize, what should I scream, I asked. "Glory to Russian medicine" - he replied and hit me again with the electric shock baton. I was amazed - he looks like a doctor in an apron, and he is so cruel.
The detainees were forced to stand for hours while Russian patriotic songs were played in the so-called punishment block - sometimes for 24 hours. They were also forced to sing the Russian anthem with their hand over their heart, writes the English-language European edition of "Novaya Gazeta" on the same topic.
According to investigators, in at least one case this led to death - the Ukrainian soldier Volodymyr Yukhimenko, who died in captivity, was diagnosed with pneumonia, multiple fractures and internal bleeding.
The doctor was recognized by former prisoners
To establish the identity of the doctor, journalists from "Schemes" have spoken to over 150 released prisoners, analyzed open sources, including the social networks of the Medical and Sanitary Unit 13, and found a video from an event on the occasion of the Day of the Medical Service of the Russian penal system, in which Sorokin is seen and heard. He has been recognized by dozens of former prisoners. According to "Schemes" Sorokin has been working in the medical unit since 2018, and at the end of 2024 he transferred to military service.
Sorokin himself denies the accusations and told journalists the following: "There is no such thing. I do not work there." However, MSCH 13 has confirmed that Sorokin was assigned to this medical unit, "Radio Liberty" also indicates. This is also clear from a diploma received by Sorokin in 2022 "for conscientious performance of public duties and active participation in the life of the unit", which he himself published on social networks. It explicitly states that he works in the medical unit serving colony No. 10.
According to the investigation, Sorokin comes from a typical Russian family: his father is nostalgic for the USSR and Stalin, and his sister is the wife of a paratrooper from Tula. Sorokin himself participated in the May 9th parades with portraits of his deceased relatives, wears Soviet uniforms and St. George ribbons. After the occupation, he visited Crimea, and on social networks today he posts information with the symbol Z and in praise of the Russian army, it becomes even clearer from the investigation of "Schemes".
Author: Daniil Sotnikov