These findings are part of an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Ukrainian investigative project Schemes, which uncovered the identities of the tormentors and exposed the system of inhumane treatment sanctioned by the colony’s leadership.When Ukrainian prisoners of war arrived at Russia’s notorious Penal Colony No. 10 in Mordovia, they expected cruelty — but nothing prepared them for the man they came to fear the most. His real name was unknown to them then, but every prisoner knew him by the name they gave him: “Doctor Evil.”It wasn’t the guards who earned that name. It was a medic — the person who, by all norms of humanity and the Geneva Conventions, should have been responsible for preserving their lives and health.But at Penal Colony No. 10, the doctors became tormentors. And one in particular stood out.“Doctor Evil” would meet new prisoners by barking orders, waving a stun gun, and unleashing violence under the guise of medical care.“I thought it couldn't get any worse,” recalled Pavlo Afisov. “But when they brought me in, I don't know — you can't even call him a human being — he started waving a stun gun and hit me several times. He shouted at me like some big commander and called us, excuse my language, ‘stinking f*ckers’ who didn’t deserve to be treated with dignity.”Sometimes they called him “Doctor Shock.” But whatever the name, the stories were the same.Oleksandr Savov, a marine from Mykolaiv who survived the siege of Mariupol, recalled seeing him in a white coat. Hoping for help, Savov told him he suspected tuberculosis. The response?“He asks me, ‘What should I shout?’ I didn’t know. So he shocked me with a stun gun — once. I stood there silent. Then again — twice. Then he yelled at me again. Finally, he said, ‘Glory to Russian medicine!’ I shouted it. And then he shocked me again — so I’d ‘remember.’ I looked at him, this so-called doctor, and thought: why is he so cruel?”Savov spent six months in Colony No. 10. Like other prisoners, he quickly learned that “Doctor Evil” wasn’t there to treat anyone. He was there to humiliate, degrade, and torture.Pavlo Afisov recalled, “He shocked one, then another, then a third — making us squat and croak like frogs, crawl to the camera, waddle like ducks. Sometimes he'd shout, ‘Start the motorcycle!’ and chase us around with a stun gun. He didn’t treat anyone. He tortured people for fun. And every time, he made us shout things like, ‘Glory to Russian medicine!’ Or ‘Pepsi!’ — we had to answer ‘Psst, aaa!’ Or ‘Yogurt!’ — we had to shout ‘Danone!’ The man was maybe 40 years old. God knows where he got these sick habits.”Another former POW, Yulian Pylypei, said, “We had to mimic scenes from Soviet cartoons or pretend we were shooting in a trench. Every time this doctor came in, he’d open the door and say, ‘On your knees, f*er.’ Then, ‘Your hand, b**,’ and zap us with a stun gun — just because.”Nikita Pikulyk called him mentally unstable: “When he entered the corridor, it was clear it was him — switching from screaming to speaking calmly. He didn’t give medicine; he gave shocks. You’d reach your hand out for a pill, and he’d hit it with a stun gun.”Worse still, he seemed to enjoy it. Afisov said, “He got aesthetic pleasure from it — seeing us on all fours, eyes closed, then kicking us between the legs, in the stomach, the liver, beating us with a baton or shocking us. He even said Ukrainians ‘should be subjected to genocide.’”When Volodymyr Yykhymenko was fatally beaten, his cellmate begged “Doctor Evil” for help. The doctor’s response: “Well, officer on duty, hit him in the ear.”Identification of “Doctor Evil”Journalists from Schemes began searching for the man behind the mask. After combing through photos, videos, and records from the Federal Penitentiary Service of Mordovia, they found him.His name is Ilya Sorokin — a 34-year-old paramedic from Potma, Mordovia. A father of two. A man who once proudly posted on social media about his Soviet nostalgia, paraded with St. George’s ribbons, and visited occupied Crimea.His official record shows steady promotions and awards — including a 2022 commendation for “conscientious service.” His social media showed him in a Soviet uniform, supporting the Russian army, and being congratulated by the deputy head of Colony No. 10.Prisoners confirmed his identity after seeing and hearing him in videos. Yet, when journalists called Sorokin, he denied everything. “I don’t work there,” he said — and hung up.Russian penitentiary officials later confirmed that Sorokin did work at the colony before joining the army in late 2024 under the call sign “Doctor.”A system of abuseSorokin wasn’t the only medical worker accused of cruelty. Prisoners told of two female nurses — one of whom said she “didn’t give a f***” when asked for bandages.One of the senior medical officers is Colonel Alexandr Levin, deputy head of Medical Unit No. 13. Other staff identified include nurse Anastasia Demidova, doctor yevgenyNikitin, and their boss, Colonel Galina Mokshanova.The leadership of Colony No. 10 — Sergei Zabaykin and later Alexander Gnutov — allegedly knew everything. Guards openly admitted: “It’s the warden’s orders.”Prisoners believe the abuse was systemic, tolerated, and even encouraged by command.“There were cameras everywhere,” Pikulyk said. “Nobody stopped them. The abuse happened every day.”The Black Hole of MordoviaColony No. 10 is a legal black hole — a place where POWs vanish into a system with no oversight, no rights, and no recourse.Daniel Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told Schemes, “It is critical to hold Russia accountable under the Geneva Conventions. The treatment of POWs must be scrutinized by the international community.”For those who survived, like Afisov, Pikulyk, and Pylypei, survival was a matter of hope and mutual support.“In Mordovia, each of us constantly thought about suicide,” Pikulyk admitted. “Only the hope of exchange and the belief that our families were waiting kept us alive.”“We even sang Christmas carols in secret,” Pylyp said. “They tried to break us — but they couldn’t take our spirit.”Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers remain in Colony No. 10. Their fate, like their suffering, remains largely unseen by the world.