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An official report of UN [[Amnesty International]] and [[Human Rights Watch]] issued in 2016 has presented multiple cases of unlawful, unacknowledged detention in SBU premises in [[Kharkiv]], [[Izyum]], [[Kramatorsk]], and [[Mariupol]]. Investigation revealed that Ukrainian pro-government forces, including members of [[Ukrainian volunteer battalions (since 2014)|volunteer battalions]], held civilian victims in prolonged, secret captivity. Later the detained individuals were handed over to the Security Service of Ukraine. During the incarceration the detainees were tortured, beaten, subjected to electric shocks, threatened with sexual abuse, execution, and retaliation against family members in order to retrieve their confessions. Eventually some of them were transferred into a regular criminal justice system, some other ones were later exchanged for people captured by the rebel forces or released without trial.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur50/4455/2016/en/ “You Don’t Exist” Arbitrary Detentions, Enforced Disappearances, and Torture in Eastern Ukraine]</ref>
By August 2016 the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights made a conclusion that "Ukrainian authorities have allowed the deprivation of liberty of individuals in secret for prolonged periods of time".<ref> name=ponarseurasia</ref>
For example, one of the prisoners, Mykola Vakaruk, spent in the custody more than 600 days, suffering from repeated beatings and freezing cold. As a result of improper conditions he lost a kidney. Being in hospital he was forced to adopt a fake identity before undergoing kidney surgery. Finally he was released with compensation around 100 hryvnias (less than $4).<ref>[https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/tortured-and-a-kidney-lost-life-in-ukraine-s-illegal-secret-prisons/story-2lhm82qnBLniFYhwkFIRbK.html Tortured and a kidney lost: Life in Ukraine’s illegal ‘secret prisons’]</ref>
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