In a Russian penal colony, Kremlin prisoner Iryna Danylovych can’t receive the essential medication she requires
In the penal colony of Zelenokumsk, Stavropol Krai, Russian Federation, conditions have been deliberately created that make it impossible for political prisoner, citizen journalist and activist Iryna Danylovych to receive medication both from outside sources and through the medical and sanitary unit.
Her family informed the Human Rights Centre ZMINA about this.
Iryna Danylovych. Source: RSF (photo)The absence of treatment not only causes constant earache, but also means that Danylovych regularly suffers from migraines. Despite this, she does not receive any medication to alleviate her condition.
Simultaneously, Danylovych is deprived of her right to communicate with her loved ones by telephone. The colony administration refuses to add two subscribers with whom Danylovych would like to maintain contact to the list of permitted contacts.
According to human rights defenders, such restrictions put extra pressure on Danylovych in the colony by denying her medical care.
The Crimean human rights defender and citizen journalist is being held in appalling conditions in a penal colony in the Stavropol region of the Russian Federation.
She and other prisoners are forced to suffer abuse from the guards, drink water with a taste of decay (due to animal corpses in the water supply system), are forced to stand for hours in the rain and cold, and are deprived of food and proper medical care. The colony premises are also infested with rats and cockroaches.
Iryna Danylovych is a nurse and civil society activist from Feodosia. She cooperated with the publication INzhyr media and the human rights project Crimean Process. She defended the interests of medical workers on the peninsula: she joined an independent trade union and wrote extensively about violations of their rights, such as underpayment for working with COVID-19 patients. She also ran a social media page and several blog columns dedicated to the rights of medical workers and healthcare issues in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
FSB officers abducted her on April 29 and held her in an FSB basement until May 7 without any legal status or access to a lawyer. She was interrogated using a polygraph and subjected to psychological pressure: she was threatened with being taken to the forest or to Mariupol and was fed only once a day. She also stated this in the illegal “court” in Feodosia.
Despite the outrage of the international human rights community, on December 28, 2022, the “Feodosia City Court” delivered its verdict on Iryna Danylovych. She was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined 50,000 rubles for allegedly storing explosives.
Danylovych suffers from severe headaches and is suspected of having acute inflammation of the middle and inner ear. There is a risk of brain inflammation, which can lead to death.
On March 26, the EU Delegation to Ukraine expressed concern about the health of illegally sentenced Danylovych and called for immediate medical assistance to be provided to her.
United Nations Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor called on Russia to immediately release Danylovych.
In January 2025, the woman complained of deteriorating health in the colony, including constant headaches and ringing in her ears and head.
Earlier, ZMINA reported that Iryna Danylovych, illegally imprisoned by Russia for seven years, suffers from severe heart pain, which prevents her from sleeping normally.
