Russia possesses the death certificate of a Polish citizen who died in the Taganrog prison; Poland cannot obtain the document — Gazeta Wyborcza

The death certificate of Krzysztof Galos, who traveled to Ukraine in 2023 to a combat zone and was taken prisoner by Russia, is held at a civil registry office (ZAGS) in Russia’s Rostov Region. This was reported by Gazeta Wyborcza, citing the Kraków police, who in turn refer to data from Interpol.

According to the certificate, Galos died on July 4, 2023. However, neither Polish state authorities nor the family of the missing Pole have so far received the document itself.

Krzysztof Galos, a resident of Kraków, crossed the Polish–Ukrainian border in April 2023. He was traveling in his own car and carried a bicycle with him. His relatives told journalists that he could not believe a full-scale war was actually taking place in Ukraine and wanted to see it with his own eyes. They also believe that Galos suffered from prolonged depression.

According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the man attempted to enter Enerhodar, but Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint near the village of Hryhorivka did not let him through. Presumably, he found another route. Using contacts within Ukrainian law enforcement, Galos’s son managed to learn that his father’s car had been captured by surveillance cameras near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — an area controlled by the Russian army.

In November 2025, the Memorial Human Rights Defense Center published the third part of a report based on a human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine. This part is devoted to the situation of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages. It stated:

‘According to one of our respondents, in May 2023 a citizen of Poland was brought to the Taganrog remand prison. He said that he ”had gone to travel around Ukraine and see what was going on there, but took a wrong turn and ended up at a Russian military checkpoint.“ He was regularly beaten for not learning Russian and for Poland’s support of Ukraine. One of the guard shifts beat him so severely during a roll call that his legs turned blue and began to fail, and in mid-June 2023 he died. After that, his cellmates were forced to sign statements saying that none of the staff had beaten him and that there had been no conflicts in the cell.’

After the Memorial report was published, Gazeta Wyborcza found its own witness who had been held in the Taganrog remand prison and heard abuse of the Pole in a neighboring cell. The newspaper spoke with Boris, an officer of Ukraine’s State Emergency Service (DSNS) from Melitopol. According to Boris, he heard the Pole being constantly insulted, beaten, and forced to learn the Russian national anthem and military songs. Boris and his cellmates called the Pole ‘Christopher’; he does not know his surname.

Boris says that after one of the mass beatings of prisoners by Russian special forces, he heard other inmates calling for a doctor for the Pole. A few days later, the beaten man died.

‘It was either Monday or Tuesday,’ Boris told journalists. ‘I heard shouting from the corridor; the duty officer and a medic ran in. I heard someone being carried out into the corridor and then taken away. After that, the guys from that cell were called in for questioning.’

Later, Boris shared a cell with a man who had previously been held with the Pole and had witnessed his death:

‘He told me what had happened. Krzysztof woke up in the morning and said, ”I think I’m going to die now.” He was feeling very bad. When he started having breakfast, he suddenly began to shake and collapsed. His cellmates immediately called the guards. When he was carried out, he was already dying.’

Boris learned that after the beating, the cellmates rubbed the Pole’s legs, which had become badly swollen.

Boris also confirms that the deceased man’s cellmates were forced to sign statements saying that remand prison staff had not used violence against him. The official cause of death, according to him, was a stroke.

Galos’s son says he is ’99 percent sure’ that the Polish citizen beaten to death in the Taganrog remand prison was his father.