a Ukrainian soldier describes the hell of Russian prisons

Oleksander, who was transferred to eight different Russian prisons, says he witnessed scenes of torture against soldiers and civilians.

A return to life, almost three years later. Monday January 30, 2024, Moscow and kyiv announced that they had carried out a new exchange involving more than 300 prisoners including 189 Ukrainians on the eve of New Year’s Eve.

Among them is Oleksander, a young man who spent 991 days in eight different Russian prisons after his capture. On BFMTV, the soldier recounts the torture he witnessed.

“I saw people die in captivity. Sometimes their chronic illnesses got worse and there was no medicine or care. The Russians had no desire to treat us, and then there were those who “They don’t tolerate torture. Others were killed as soon as they arrived,” he said.

“Constant threats”

Taken prisoner on April 12, 2022 during the first weeks of the war in Mariupol, Oleksander now wishes to testify to these long months of detention and have Russian crimes recognized

“When you fall asleep, when you wake up, when you eat, you hear the screams of people who are being tortured nearby. In some prisons where I was, we received blows every day, blows with a stick. , electric current, tear gas and constant threats, insults, humiliations,” he lists.

And the Ukrainian soldier continued: “The most difficult thing there is perhaps the uncertainty. The uncertainty of your future because every day is the same and you don’t know what could happen to you. plus soldiers, there were also civilians in captivity. They are held in the same conditions, tortured in the same way as the others.

“I don’t realize yet.”

According to Russia, it was the United Arab Emirates which provided humanitarian mediation between the two countries in order to carry out this exchange. This country is very active in discussions on prisoner exchanges between kyiv and Moscow, also serving as mediators for the return of Ukrainian children to their country from Russia.

On December 28, Russian guards ordered Oleksander and several dozen other detainees to collect their belongings. “The journey was difficult, but it was still very joyful. We realized that we were going home for good, I think I don’t yet realize that I am free,” he concludes.

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners since the Russian offensive began in February 2022 and regularly exchange the remains of soldiers killed in the fighting.