The Torture Camp on Paradise Street

“This book is a difficult read but an important one. Aseyev is a journalist from Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine occupied by Russians in 2014. He stayed in Donetsk after the occupation and reported on what was happening. Then he was captured and brought to a concentration camp, where he was imprisoned for two years, from 2017 to 2019. In the book, he describes all the forms of psychological and physical torture that he and the other prisoners of this concentration camp endured. This book allows us to understand the Russian occupation and everything that has been going on since Russia forcibly invaded Ukraine in 2014. When we hear various calls to appeasement, to peace talks with Russia, this is what we need to keep in mind. This is what Russia does on occupied territories. This is what Russia does to Ukrainian citizens. Aseyev’s witness reminds us that we need to keep focusing attention on the lives of those in occupied territories, on the Russian trademark concentration camps. We know that other similar detention centers are mushrooming wherever Russia has been able to establish its occupation authorities.” Read more...

The Best Ukrainian Literature

Sasha Dovzhyk, Literary Scholar