On June 9, 2014, the territory of the «IZOLYATSIA» foundation was seized by the occupation administration of Donetsk, it was announced that the seizure was carried out to store the so-called «humanitarian aid» that was arriving from Russia, as well as for other needs of the DPR.
As the Foundation notes on its website, the so-called DPR immediately placed a sniper on top of the spoil tip, located in the territory of the cultural space.




On June 10, 2014, incidents of looting and robbery of the premises of the Foundation were recorded: breaking of a safe and doors to the premises with expensive tools and equipment, robbery of belongings of the Foundation and its employees. The management of the «IZOLYATSIA» space submitted complaints about the commission of criminal offense to the Office of the Prosecutor General, Security Service, and Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, but they took no action.

On July 2, 2014, a special committee of the self-proclaimed DPR was established on the territory of the plant. The committee was headed by Leonid Baranov, who, in an interview with Russian media, stated that the committee was carrying out investigative and punitive functions. In addition, it is reported that the «Vostok» battalion was based on the territory of the plant.  Since then, there have been reports in the media about the detention of civilian hostages on the territory of the plant, who were persecuted by the occupying forces. Ukrainian citizens released from the DPR report that the «Izolyatsia» is used as a place for illegal deprivation of liberty, psychological pressure, and torture of citizens captured by the occupying administration.

The events described are investigated by law enforcement agencies in Ukraine. On October 29, 2020, it became known that the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, together with the investigative department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Donetsk region, served a notice of suspicion in absentia to the head of the underground prison «Izolyatsia».
The report states that during the pre-trial investigation, it was established that in 2014, armed representatives of the illegal paramilitary formation of the so-called «Ministry of State Security», which is controlled by the Russian Federation, seized the territory of a former insulation materials plant. A «torture chamber» was organized on the seized enterprise, where civilians as well as captured military servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were illegally detained. The investigation indicates that the illegally imprisoned citizens were tortured with electrocution for hours, beaten, held in inhumane conditions without food and water, and forced into hard labor. 
According to information released by the Office of the Prosecutor General in July 2021, two representatives of illegal armed groups who were leaders and organizers of the underground prison «Izolyatsia» were exposed and notified of suspicion in absentia.
According to the investigation, since 2014, a resident of Zuika, Donetsk region, who previously served in the French Foreign Legion and participated in combat operations in Syria, took the position of the «head of the special operations center of the Ministry of State Security of the DPR». Together with his deputy, a former entrepreneur, under the guidance of Russian curators, they organized an underground prison on the territory of a former insulation materials plant in Donetsk, where grave and particularly grave crimes were committed. 
It is reported that the investigation exposed the key leadership of the illegal prison and the main perpetrators of the crimes committed there. In total, as of July 7, 2021, 15 individuals have been notified in absentia of suspicion concerning the violation of the laws and customs of war on the territory of «Izolyatsia».  Approximately 170 victims have been identified.
On August 5, 2022, the prosecutors of the Office of the Prosecutor General submitted an indictment to the court against the so-called head of the «Izolyatsia» prison on the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region. The report states that the prison was established for the illegal detention of prisoners of war and civilians, their torture and mutilation to obtain false confessions about their alleged crimes, as well as for their intimidation and putting psychological pressure on them.
These events were widely covered in the Ukrainian mass media. In particular, the inhuman treatment and torture of prisoners of «Izolyatsia» drew the attention of many journalistic publications.
«Radio Svoboda» together with «Bellingcat» conducted their investigation into the mentioned events and filmed a video material titled «The Most Brutal Place in Europe: How and Why the Commander of «Izolyatsia» Moved to Kyiv».