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Last Seen in Crimea is a Kyiv Independent investigative documentary about what the outlet describes as Russia’s system of unlawful detention for Ukrainian civilians in occupied Crimea and newly occupied parts of southern Ukraine. Its reporting traces the Federal Security Service (FSB), detention-center personnel and senior officials, while documenting families’ struggle to locate relatives held without clear legal process.
What the documentary investigates
The Kyiv Independent says its investigative team spoke with dozens of relatives of imprisoned Ukrainian civilians, witnesses and lawyers whose clients were held in Crimean pre-trial detention centers during the occupation. The outlet presents the findings as an investigation into a peninsula transformed into a prison system, rather than as an independent judicial determination of every allegation.
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According to the investigation, civilians were sometimes held for months without formal charges, access to lawyers or contact with their families. Former detainees and relatives described alleged abductions, torture and abuse, as well as periods when families did not know whether a detained person was alive. Those accounts are reported claims drawn from testimony gathered by the Kyiv Independent.
How Crimea’s detention network reportedly expanded
The investigation says Russia opened two additional pre-trial detention centers in Crimea after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The facilities were reportedly used to hold civilians detained in newly occupied areas of southern Ukraine, extending the peninsula’s role beyond the detention of Crimean residents.
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The report connects the system to the FSB and identifies detention-center staff and senior officials. It also describes movement of prisoners away from Crimea after detention. Nariman Dzhelyal, for example, was reportedly held at Simferopol’s SIZO No. 2 in 2023 before being transferred more than 5,000 kilometers from Crimea to serve his sentence.
SIZO No. 2 and SIZO No. 8
The two named facilities have different formal arrangements, but the investigation says both are relevant to understanding alleged security-service control.
Rank #2
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| Facility | Formal status described by the Kyiv Independent | What the investigation reports |
|---|---|---|
| SIZO No. 2, Simferopol | Formally operated by Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service | Testimony gathered by the outlet indicates that the FSB had special access. |
| SIZO No. 8 | The page says it officially came under FSB control in March 2026 | The facility’s head was not publicly identified on the page; information about that position was classified. |
The distinction matters: formal administration and reported operational control are not necessarily the same. The documentary’s account relies on interviews, witness testimony and document-based investigation to describe how the centers functioned in practice.
Families left without answers
Anatolii’s disappearance
The investigation uses the changed name Anatolii for a man it says spent about six months at SIZO No. 2. During that period, his family did not know where he was and believed he might have been killed. The account illustrates the information vacuum surrounding some civilian detentions.
Serhii Lykhomanov
Tetiana Zelena told the Kyiv Independent that her brother, Serhii Lykhomanov, was held for a time in SIZO No. 8. The page says she still did not know his whereabouts when the report was written, underscoring how detention could continue without reliable notice to relatives.
A reported plan for another facility
The Kyiv Independent reports that Russia plans to build another pre-trial detention center in Crimea by 2030. The proposed facility is described as having capacity for 1,500 people. This is a reported plan, not evidence that the project has been completed or is operating.
Rank #4
Who made Last Seen in Crimea
Olesia Bida is credited as author. Maksym Yakobchuk is listed as director, Dmytro Chaika as video editor, and Myroslava Chaiun as journalist and researcher. The page also credits cinematographers and other production staff. No named interviewee quotation with a visible speaker identity and role is provided in the reviewed page text, so the documentary’s testimony should not be presented through invented or unattributed quotations.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is established—and what is not
- The Kyiv Independent’s page identifies the project as an investigative documentary and written investigation concerning detention of Ukrainian civilians in occupied Crimea.
- The reported accounts concern alleged unlawful detention, lack of legal access, family separation, torture and abuse; they are attributed to the outlet’s reporting and the testimony it gathered.
- The page does not display a publication date or documentary runtime.
- It does not establish an external viewing platform, broadcast schedule or physical-media edition.
- The reporting page itself is the basis for the claims above; the material reviewed here does not independently adjudicate each allegation.
Why the investigation matters
By linking individual disappearances to named facilities, officials and an expanding detention infrastructure, Last Seen in Crimea frames civilian imprisonment as a system rather than a series of isolated incidents. Its central question is how people taken in occupied territory can vanish into institutions whose formal labels obscure who has access, who controls information and where prisoners are ultimately sent.
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- A timely and intimate look at the ongoing war in Ukraine
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