Ilya Sorokin
Introduction
Ilya Sorokin is a 35-year-old Russian paramedic whom Ukrainian prisoners of war nicknamed “Doctor Evil” — and sometimes “Dr Shocker” — for the cruelty he allegedly inflicted on wounded Ukrainian soldiers held at Penal Colony No. 10 in Mordovia, southeast of Moscow. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has charged him in absentia with war crimes over the treatment of at least 29 prisoners, and the European Union has placed him under sanctions for what it called inhumane and degrading treatment of POWs. He has denied the allegations, telling journalists “That can’t be true. I don’t work there.”
Background Information
Sorokin worked as a paramedic in the medical unit serving Correctional Colony No. 10 (IK-10), a notoriously closed prison in the settlement of Udarny in the Mordovia region, through a branch of Medical Unit No. 13 of Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. Leaked income data reviewed by journalists showed salaries of roughly 560,000 roubles in 2018 and 680,000 roubles in 2021 — the equivalent of about 9,000 dollars a year. In 2022 he posted a certificate awarded “for conscientious performance of public duties and active participation in the life of the collective” naming his service to the colony’s medical unit. At the end of 2024 he left to join the Russian army under the call sign “Doctor,” likely in logistics-support forces, and a personnel officer at Medical Unit No. 13 confirmed he was expected to return to the prison service afterward. His social media has carried ‘Z’ symbols and pro-war posts, and he has taken part in Victory Day parades in Soviet uniform.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged in absentia with war crimes; sanctioned by the EU. The torture accounts in this section are allegations from former prisoners and Ukrainian prosecutors; Sorokin has been charged but never tried, remains in Russia, and denies the allegations.
In July 2025 the investigative project Schemes, RFE/RL’s Ukrainian service working with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, identified Sorokin as the medic behind the “Doctor Evil” accounts by matching photos and videos from Federal Penitentiary Service events against the memories of released prisoners; most of roughly 150 former IK-10 inmates shown the images recognized him, and about fifty confirmed his identity from a celebration video in which both his face and voice were visible. The prisoners, held at the colony between February 2023 and April 2025, typically had seen him only behind a medical mask or a balaclava painted with a skull.
The accounts they gave were strikingly consistent: stun-gun shocks applied under the guise of a “medical examination” — the SBU says victims lost consciousness or suffered temporary paralysis — kicks, rubber-baton beatings, and denial of painkillers and bandages to wounded men. Prisoners said Sorokin shocked them for asking help with heart pains, festering wounds or even a toothache, and forced them to shout “Glory to Russian medicine!” — the EU’s sanctions listing says he also forced prisoners to bark and sing patriotic songs. Ukrainian marine officer Pavlo Afisov, who spent 614 days at the colony after being captured at Mariupol, said Sorokin called inmates “stinking khokhly” — a slur for Ukrainians — who “did not deserve decent treatment,” and quoted him saying people like them “should be subjected to genocide.” Marine Oleksandr Savov said Sorokin shocked him twice simply for mentioning suspected tuberculosis.
Sorokin allegedly reserved his worst treatment for captured Ukrainian medics, punishing them over what the NY Post calls unproven claims — spread by Russian propaganda, per released military doctor Serhii Doroshenko — that Mariupol medics had conducted “biological experiments” on Russian troops. Doroshenko, who spent more than 1,000 days in captivity and spoke from a hospital bed, said Sorokin “knows where it hurts the most, and he deliberately strikes you right there.” Former inmate Volodymyr Yukhymenko deteriorated so badly that his cellmate begged Sorokin for help and was told, per RFE/RL, to have the duty officer hit him in the ear again; his widow told the outlet his body was returned to Ukraine so changed that a DNA test was needed. Ukrainian law-enforcement sources reported at least two POW deaths at IK-10 in 2023 and at least two more in 2024. On 3 December 2025 the SBU reported Sorokin on suspicion under Part 1 of Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code — war crimes, cruel treatment of prisoners of war — and in September 2026 it updated the notice as new victims came forward, raising the count from 16 to 29.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case drew its widest Western audience when the NY Post revived it on 29 October 2026 under the headline “Ukrainians recount torture at hands of Russia’s sadistic ‘Dr Evil’.” The underlying investigation won Editor & Publisher magazine’s 2025 Eppy Award for best investigative/enterprise feature, and the European Union sanctioned Sorokin in October 2025 under entry No. 1976 of its 19th sanctions package, citing “inhumane and degrading treatment” including sexual violence, electrocution, and violations of the Geneva Conventions. Afisov called the in-absentia charge a step toward accountability, saying Sorokin’s “constant moral and physical abuse of every prisoner of war should not give him the right to freely and safely enjoy life.” Kyiv-based Center for Civil Liberties researchers reported hundreds of former prisoners describing Russian medical professionals “directly participating in torture, ill treatment, and the degrading treatment of detainees.”
Current Status
Sorokin remains in Russia, where Ukrainian law enforcement says comprehensive measures are underway to find and punish him; the in-absentia mechanism lets Ukraine document evidence with a state-appointed defense counsel and enforce any eventual verdict abroad without waiting for the war’s end, according to lawyer Andriy Yakovlev of the Regional Center for Human Rights. The SBU’s updated notice of suspicion now covers 29 alleged victims of an estimated 200 Ukrainian POWs who passed through the colony. Sorokin’s Telegram account appeared deleted by December 2025, and he has made no substantive public response beyond his denial; no trial has taken place and nothing has been adjudicated.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The man who once advertised his prison-medical service on social media is now a sanctioned, internationally named alleged war criminal who cannot leave Russia without risking arrest, and whose case has become a test of Ukraine’s in-absentia prosecution model. Savov, the marine who identified him, died in November 2025 after returning from captivity with tuberculosis and, he said, scars from Sorokin’s electric shocks. Hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners remain in Russian custody, and Kyiv’s Center for Civil Liberties documented medical staff participating in abuse across the detention system — a record the SBU says it will keep building cases from.
Sources
- NY Post, “Ukrainians recount torture at hands of Russia’s sadistic ‘Dr Evil’: ‘He knows where it hurts the most’”, 29 October 2026.source
- NY Post via X, “Ukrainians recount torture at hands of Russia’s sadistic ‘Dr Evil’”, 29 October 2026.source
- RFE/RL (Schemes), “Unmasking ‘Dr. Evil’: Ukrainian Soldiers Haunted By The Horrors Of A Russian Prison”, 30 November 2025.source
- Interfax-Ukraine, “SBU charges ‘Doctor Evil’ in absentia for torturing prisoners”, 3 December 2025.source
- OCCRP, “Ukraine Charges Russian ‘Dr. Evil’ in Absentia with War Crimes”, December 2025.source
- ZMINA Human Rights Center, “Torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Mordovia: Number of victims in Russian medic’s case increases”, 13 September 2026.source
- echr-cpt.com (Dmytro Yagunov), “The EU Imposed Sanctions Against ‘Doctor Evil,’ Who Tortured Ukrainian Prisoners”, 25 October 2025.source
- Novaya Gazeta Europe, “Journalists uncover identity of Russian ‘Dr. Evil’ who tortured captured Ukrainian soldiers”, 17 July 2025.source