Viktar Babaryka: "If they ask me: 'Were you tortured?', I will say: 'I don't know'"

Viktar Babaryka during an interview with "Zerkalo". Berlin, Germany, February 17, 2026. Photo: lookby.media

— In April 2023, you were admitted to a hospital from the colony; it was known that fluid was found in your lungs. At a press conference in Chernihiv, you said you didn't want to comment on what happened because you didn't remember how it happened. Quote: "I woke up with a broken rib, a torn lung, bilateral pneumonia, and 23 stitches from a skull incision." You are now in Germany, in safety. Perhaps you've remembered something since then?

— No. As I already said, I'm used to being accountable for my words. And if, for example, they tell me that someone is a criminal because he did this, I don't have the knowledge to affirm the fact: whether he is a criminal or not.

If they tell me: these injuries could not have been inflicted any other way than... I say: I don't know if they could have been inflicted or not. Let those who will examine my medical file, which contains everything, figure that out. It's described there, I gave testimony. So, absolutely now, and then – it's not a matter of safety. And the question, as everyone says: "Oh, you're silent because your son is a hostage." Not for that reason. I had nothing to say – so I was silent. It's the same now. I wasn't afraid then, nor am I now.

The only thing I can add is: they simply told me that what happened was a calculation of my pain threshold. They know for sure that four days of sleeplessness, cold – and I lose consciousness. There were two such instances. One was with minor injuries, and it's also documented, but without consequences, meaning only wounds, and the second ended as it ended.

— Tell us more about the times you were kept without sleep.

— Well, that's done very easily. They put you in a punishment cell with a person, let's call him, mentally unbalanced. He has a peculiarity: he talks nonstop during the day. And during the day in a punishment cell, it's forbidden to sleep or lie down. At night, he starts chasing the devil who comes as a third party into your cell. Accordingly, the devil runs around the cell, so he doesn't let you sleep either. And this provokes. There are two expected outcomes: either you can physically suppress him – and you unequivocally, justly get a criminal charge, because that's the use of violence. Or you have to somehow avoid provocative actions.

— From your lawyers and released political prisoners, there was information that in the colony you worked in difficult conditions: sometimes you were forced to be in the bakery at high temperatures, sometimes you were transferred to work in the frost.

— The first place of work was the boiler room. Not for long, though. On the day I received my boiler operator certificate, I was immediately transferred to the workshop as a molder. Baker of bread and pastry products – that's what the profession was called. Why [was I transferred]? Because the boiler room opened to the outside, and I could communicate with people, and everyone was curious. They, of course, would then be sent to a punishment cell, but it was an opportunity for communication. So I was transferred there [to the bakery]. And there, yes, the sanitary norms were not entirely observed. It was exactly summer, and the temperature was very high, although it should not, in my opinion, exceed 27 degrees. And the lawyers raised this issue. It was not possible to solve this problem. But that wasn't the [most difficult thing].

But then... It was 2022, autumn after the start of the war. Conditions deteriorated sharply. I was transferred to what I would call not the most difficult, but apparently not the best for health work – that is, charcoal burning. And that's fine dust. I have problems with my lungs already after the foundry, where I worked in approximately similar conditions. And here, unfortunately, [came] the only phrase from the medics that slightly upsets me. They all knew this, and the following was said: "But your life is not directly threatened by this, is it?" One couldn't argue with that, because working there, I couldn't immediately die, of course. But that was the only phrase, and I believe it was said under duress. I definitely have no complaints against the medics in this regard.

But this was actually not for long, because then punishment cells (ShIZA), cell-type premises (PKT), and this whole carousel began. So I didn't work there long. And after that, my whole life was entirely, as prisoners say, "under the roof."

— You were incommunicado for a long time: you didn't receive letters and couldn't make phone calls. How did this start? Was there any explanation from the administration as to why no one was writing to you?

— No. As I already said, no one spoke to me about this. The answers were standard: "Well, they're not writing. We don't know." My attempts to use any mechanisms, starting from complaints, letters, as long as [I] had them... Everything was recorded very simply: as long as I had envelopes and the ability to write, my letters were taken away – I wrote every week to my sister or friends and a request for a meeting with a lawyer. They take them – and that's it. The only thing, to give credit where it's due, to my question: "What am I doing wrong?" or "What should I do correctly?" the answer was: "You are doing everything correctly, you are doing everything well. You will sit. And that's it." And there was one more good phrase: "Not everything depends on the colony administration." I don't know how true it was, but I was told that too.

— How did you experience the situation when you had no opportunity to contact your loved ones?

— From my point of view, why this [incommunicado] regime was chosen — because psychologically it is the most difficult. That's why I really asked to be put in prison, and they told me: "No, no, no. In prison, there is still some possibility of communication."

— Explain: "asked to be put in prison" — what does that mean?

— I said: "Well, you can't assign PKT (cell-type premises) five times in a row to such a malicious violator. Give me some prison article and send me to prison. Since I am such a bad hooligan and maliciously violate order, and do not obey the administration." That's logical.

But they told me: "No, you will be better off in prison." And so they didn't send me there. I don't know whose initiative this was.

It's not easy to go through this. Well, as they also say: it was psychological torture. I don't know its criteria. So if they ask me: "Were you tortured?" — then I will say: "I don't know." Physically, I was not tortured. In the KGB, they told me: "You know, Viktar Dzmitryevich, that physical torture is forbidden here?" I said: "Judging by your tone, you regret that very much."

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