Survivor recounts torture and death of POWs in Russian jail, says no one avoided beatings
Russia has been systematically torturing and abusing
Ukrainian prisoners of war, resulting in the deaths of at least 206 service
members, the
Associated Press reported on May 27 after speaking with the family of a
Ukrainian soldier who died in Russian captivity.
The case centers on Serhii Hryhoriev, a 59-year-old soldier
who joined the Ukrainian army in 2019 and helped defend Mariupol during the
early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
A Russian-issued death certificate claimed Hryhoriev died of
a stroke. But a Ukrainian autopsy, along with testimony from a fellow POW who
was held with him, told a different story — one of abuse and medical neglect by
Russian authorities.
According to officials from human rights groups, the United
Nations, Ukraine’s government, and a Ukrainian forensic pathologist who has
conducted dozens of autopsies on POWs, violence in Russian prisons has become a
leading cause of death for captured Ukrainian soldiers.
The AP reported that the number of deaths in custody points
to a systematic pattern of cruelty by Russian forces. Experts say discrepancies
in forensic records — like in Hryhoriev’s case — along with the repatriation of
decomposed and mutilated bodies, suggest an effort to cover up torture,
starvation, and poor medical treatment in dozens of prisons and detention
centers across Russia and occupied Ukraine.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, at least 206
Ukrainian defenders have died in Russian captivity, AP noted.
Of those, more than 50 were killed in a Russian missile
strike on a prison in Olenivka. Another 245 Ukrainian service members, the AP
reported, were executed on the battlefield after surrendering.
On April 10, 2022, Hryhoriev called his family to reassure
them: “Everything will be fine.” It was the last time they heard from him.
Two days later, a fellow soldier from Hryhoriev’s unit
called and said the men had been captured.
Soon after, the family received a call from the
International Committee of the Red Cross confirming that he was alive and had
been officially registered as a prisoner of war, which should have guaranteed
his protection under the Geneva Conventions.
“They told us, ‘That means it’s okay… Russia must return
him,’” said his wife, Halyna.
In August 2022, she received a letter from him: “My dear
Halychka. I’m alive and well. Everything will be fine.”
Desperate for information, his daughter Oksana began
monitoring Russian social media channels where videos of captured Ukrainian
soldiers were often posted. Eventually, she saw him in one — emaciated and
missing his teeth.
In the video, filmed under duress, Hryhoriev says to the
camera: “I’m alive and well.”
“But if you looked at him, you’d know that wasn’t true,”
Oksana said.
Soldier Oleksii Honcharov, who was imprisoned with
Hryhoriev, told journalists the reality was horrific.
For months, he witnessed Hryhoriev subjected to the same
brutal treatment as every other POW in the Kamensk-Shakhtinsky penal colony in
southwestern Russia.
“They beat everyone — no exceptions. Some more, some less,
but we all endured it,” he said.
Honcharov said he endured persistent chest pain while in
captivity. The beatings continued even as he begged for medical help, which was
ignored.
“Toward the end, I could barely walk,” said Honcharov, who
was diagnosed with tuberculosis after returning to Ukraine.
A 2024 United Nations report found that 95% of released
Ukrainian POWs were subjected to “systematic” torture. Survivors described
beatings, electric shocks, strangulation, sexual violence, prolonged stress
positions, mock executions, and sleep deprivation.
1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap: key details
On
May 25, Ukraine secured the release of another 303 service members from Russian
captivity, marking the conclusion of the third phase of a prisoner swap
agreed upon in Türkiye, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced.
The
day before, on May 24, 307 more POWs were returned as part of the same deal.
According to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the
Treatment of Prisoners of War, the returnees included soldiers from the Armed
Forces, including Air Assault Forces, the Drone Systems Forces, the Navy, the
Territorial Defense Forces, as well as personnel from the State Border Guard
Service and the National Guard. Some of the returned defenders came from units
and brigades that had not previously been part of prisoner swaps. Among them
were 27 defenders of Mariupol.
On
May 23, another 390 captives were freed — 270 military personnel and 120
civilians.
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