Journalist Serhii Tsyhipa’s wife says he was put in solitary confinement for refusing to work in a russian colony

Serhii Tsyhipa, abducted by the russians and illegally convicted journalist from Nova Kakhovka, is forced to work by the administration of Correctional Colony 3 in the city of Skopin, Ryazan Oblast, and for refusing to work; he is transferred from a general cell to solitary confinement.

His activist and wife, Olena Tsyhipa has told this to ZMINA.

While Serhii was in solitary confinement, Olena could not send him a package because according to the rules of the colony, this can be done once every six months. He was in the general cell for only one or two days.

“I am very worried that he is there without warm clothes because winter is coming, and it comes very quickly in russia,” the activist explains.

Currently, the woman has lost contact with her husband, so she does not know if her letters reach him. Olena even puts another envelope in the postcard so that Serhii can write to her.

“That is why we went on an international advocacy tour to tell the world community about the illegal actions of russians at all levels of government,” she adds.

Before the termination of the correspondence, Olena knew that Serhii was constantly sent to the disciplinary detention center for disobeying the colony’s administration. A man was punished because of sweets found on his nightstand or the unfastened top button of his prison robe. Employees of the penitentiary institution count this as a violation of the regime in the prison.

“Once, when he was on the sports ground, the supervisor asked him what he was doing there. He explained that he had free time and that he had the right to be there. He was told that he had the right only to what they would allow him. They punish prisoners for throwing water bottles and pieces of bread into the air. Doing so, they try to make people weak-willed,” says the wife.

As earlier reported, Serhii Tsyhipa, a journalist and writer from Nova Kakhovka, was kidnapped in 2022 for his active pro-Ukrainian position and journalistic activities. Thanks to his efforts, a mass event of civil disobedience was held in the city. Tsyhipa was also active in volunteering and helping people with food and medicine. After his arrest, communication with him was interrupted, and his relatives did not know where he was or what happened to him for some time. Later, they learned from a propaganda video on russian television that Tsyhipa was alive and in captivity. Then, the family learned that the man was being held in Simferopol Pre-Trial Detention Center 2.

On October 6, 2023, the so-called “Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea” sentenced Tsyhipa to 13 years of imprisonment in a high-security prison, accusing him of “espionage” under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the russian federation. Subsequently, the man was transferred to the Strict Regime Correctional Colony 3 in the city of Skopin, Ryazan Oblast.