Melekino is a Ukrainian resort village located on the Azov Sea. It has been occupied by Russia since 2022. The small seaside resort has also become a place where Moscow sends Russian refuseniks and deserted soldiers for detention. According to the Russian independent outlet ASTRA, soldiers are held here in torturous conditions at a facility that is overcrowded, dirty and poorly ventilated. Victims also reported brutal cases of physical and psychological abuse.
One of the detainees is Yegor Kharin, a soldier from Buryatia, whose name has been changed. In Melekino, Yegor was placed in a basement of an abandoned construction site in June 2025. He said soldiers were kept there for up to a year, with limited access to sanitation and medical care. He described the facility as cramped, humid, and poorly ventilated.
He told ASTRA: “Darkness, gloom, no air, dampness, cardboard boxes, pallets, and bottles. I talked to people who said they’ve been there for eight months or even a year. Refusniks, deserters, and non-deserters – they all end up there.
“Once, there were 98 people in the basement at the same time. Of course, we took turns sleeping. One of us, with the call sign ‘Kuzya’, couldn’t handle it and was taken away in an ambulance. The others held on.”
Stanislav Kozlovsky, a military officer whose name has also been changed, said wash day is once a month and “it always stinks awfully out there.”
He said: “You can’t do anything from the heat and stuffiness. They keep them like cattle or worse. They don’t care at all human rights, they have their own laws and regulations here. There are mentally ill people, people with schizophrenia and other disorders. They should be treated in a psychiatric hospital, but they’re here.”
Detained soldiers are often forced to work on repairs for the facility, with the promise of better privileges if they comply.
What adds to the dehumanisation is that the detainees are very close to holidaymakers in the small resort. Before Putin’s occupation, Melekino was a budget-friendly seaside holiday destination for Ukrainians. Every summer, the village would swell with visitors who packed into Soviet-era recreation centres and private cottages to enjoy the seaside. Today, though in smaller numbers, tourists still flock to the coast. But it is mostly Russian tourists, or locals who have remained in the occupied territories.
Ekaterina, a local from the area, told ASTRA: “We used to live a good life with our family and friends. Then the Russian occupiers came and destroyed everything. My relatives died in Mariupol when the Russians bombed the city, where everyone was happy before the war.
“Now these monsters are here, thinking that they rule the world. They’ve appointed drug addicts to high-ranking positions, and I don’t even want to greet them, because normal people don’t want to work for this new government, which only knows how to fight and kill. There are few vacationers, and when they do come, they’re so scary that you don’t want to go outside.”
Another local told ASTRA that Melekino boarding houses were allegedly “taken over by the military”. She said that the village is now overgrown with grass, there are potholes everywhere, and many buildings are abandoned.
She added: “It’s sad for the young people, there are no clubs. There used to be a cultural center and sports sections, but now there’s nowhere to go.”
