In Crimea, a chef was kept in isolation for a year for allegedly trying to poison the Russian military

In the occupied Crimea, the cook was transferred to the Simferopol detention center. According to human rights activists, she was previously held in a closed FSB prison for more than a year without contact with the outside world.

This was reported by Krym. Realii.

A chef from Sevastopol, who is accused by Russian security forces of allegedly trying to poison participants in the war against Ukraine, was transferred to SIZO-1 in Simferopol. According to media reports, this is Olga Tsyryk, who has been in isolation in an FSB special prison in Simferopol's SIZO-2 for more than a year.

At the end of September 2025, Russian security forces announced her detention. According to their version, in September 2023, the woman allegedly got in touch with Ukraine's special services via WhatsApp, sent them photos of the Russian Black Sea Fleet ships in the Sevastopol Bay, and later she was accused of trying to poison the Russian military. The propagandists drew these conclusions based on her correspondence with her curator, allegedly leaked to the FSB.

Also in the occupied Crimea, on October 15, Russian security forces searched and detained four local women - mothers and students - allegedly because of their ties to the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization banned in Russia. Human rights activists call these actions part of a systemic pressure on Crimean Tatars, including women.

The terrorist country plans to expand the network of detention centers in the temporarily occupied Crimea. Human rights activists note that the new detention centers will be controlled by the FSB and will be used to exert pressure and extract confessions.

The Russian government's program "Development of the Criminal Executive System" includes the construction of a new detention center and an increase in the capacity of existing facilities, with a total of almost 2,000 additional places for detention. Until 2014, there was only one pre-trial detention center on the peninsula in Simferopol, but in 2015, the Russian authorities began construction of two more, which were opened in 2022. In particular, residents of the newly occupied territories are held there.

Анна Бальчінос