When Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukrainian put
Stanislav Aseyev
in prison in 2017, other inmates warned him to beware of the warden,
Denis Kulikovsky.
Mr. Kulikovsky was “a committed sadist, rapist, executioner, and alcoholic; a psychopath, who read people perfectly, manipulated them masterfully, and possessed a healthy sense of humor,” Mr. Aseyev writes in his new book about his 2½ years in the Donetsk secret prison known as Izolyatsia, or Isolation.
Mr. Kulikovsky should have been watching out for Mr. Aseyev, a Ukrainian journalist who was captured and imprisoned for reporting in Donetsk for Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty. After he was released in a prisoner exchange in December 2019, Mr. Aseyev began to write about the shadowy prisons run by Russians and their proxies in the occupied Donbas region. As Mr. Aseyev made inquiries, he learned Mr. Kulikovsky was free and living in Kyiv.
Mr. Aseyev, 32, said information he provided to authorities led to Mr. Kulikovsky’s arrest last November. Ukrainian authorities declined to comment on Mr. Aseyev’s claims about his role in the investigation and arrest. But
Christo Grozev,
executive director of the investigative journalism site Bellingcat, said he worked with Mr. Aseyev to track down Mr. Kulikovsky and that the Ukrainian journalist tipped the authorities off.
Yuriy Belousov,
Ukraine’s lead prosecutor for human-rights violations, said Mr. Kulikovsky now faces criminal charges for human trafficking, terrorism, war crimes, cruel treatment and illegal deprivation of liberty. If convicted he could be sentenced to some 15 years in prison.
Artem Galkin,
a lawyer, confirmed he was representing Mr. Kulikovsky but didn’t provide comment on behalf of his client by deadline.
The Kulikovsky case inspired Mr. Aseyev to found the Justice Initiative Fund, a nonprofit that crowdsources bounties for war criminals who have committed atrocities in Ukraine. It launched on Sunday. File this one in the annals of ideas so crazy they just might work.
The Justice Initiative Fund focuses its efforts only on war-crimes suspects officially “wanted” by Ukrainian or foreign authorities. It states that it is “against vigilantism” and doesn’t order…
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