Ukrainian volunteers recount three weeks in Russian captivity, allege beatings By Reuters

By Alessandra Prentice and Sergiy Karazy

DYMER, Ukraine (Reuters) – Volodymyr Khropun and Yulia Ivannikova-Katsemon say they had been serving to individuals flee villages on the entrance line in northern Ukraine once they had been detained by Russian troopers over two days in March.

    Each mentioned they had been then held with round 40 different captives on the concrete flooring of a close-by manufacturing facility, their palms sure. Practically per week later they had been transferred in a army truck to Belarus, and on to detention centres in Russia, they mentioned.

    Khropun, {an electrical} engineer, and Ivannikova-Katsemon, an emergency companies dispatcher, had been freed with 24 others in a prisoner alternate on April 9.

    Standing exterior the dank windowless room the place they are saying they had been saved within the previously occupied village of Dymer, north of the capital, Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon have returned to explain their three weeks in Russian custody, which they mentioned included being crushed. Ivannikova-Katsemon additionally mentioned she was tasered.

    Each mentioned they had been working as volunteers for the native Purple Cross once they had been taken prisoner, interrogated and accused of passing data on the exercise of Russian forces to the opposite aspect, which they deny.

    The Ukrainian Purple Cross confirmed they had been each volunteers. They had been each reported as lacking or illegally detained civilians by the Euromaidan SOS initiative of Ukrainian human rights group The Middle for Civil Liberties as of March 26. 

    Reuters was not capable of independently confirm all the main points of their tales. The Kremlin and Russia’s defence ministry didn’t reply to requests for remark about their accounts.

Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon’s detailed narratives shed extra mild on the mistreatment Ukraine alleges a few of its residents and troopers have confronted in Russian captivity because the begin of the struggle. Their journey additionally exhibits a technique Russia has transferred a few of the tons of of Ukrainian prisoners it says it holds to Russian territory.

    Because the begin of the struggle on Feb. 24, Ukraine and Russia have accused one another of violating the Geneva Conventions that cowl the safety of civilians throughout struggle and the remedy of prisoners of struggle.

    In March, Russia’s human rights ombudswoman mentioned she had heard about instances of “merciless and inhuman remedy” of Russian POWs in Ukraine.

    This month Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman mentioned returning POWs had described mistreatment whereas in Russian captivity that included being saved in basements, denied meals and made to take off their garments.

    Authorities from either side have repeatedly mentioned they abide by worldwide humanitarian legislation when it comes to remedy of prisoners.

    Talking within the manufacturing facility in Dymer, Khropun described what occurred when he was first detained by Russian forces, after driving evacuees by a checkpoint on March 18. 

    “They arrested me, closed my eyes – as in, they pulled a hat over my eyes, sure it on with scotch tape – after which wrapped my palms in tape, like a terrorist. Then I used to be transferred right here,” mentioned Khropun, 44.

    He and Ivannikova-Katsemon had each been often crossing the entrance line to assist locals escape the combating round villages north of Kyiv. Ivannikova-Katsemon, 37, was detained equally the following day, she mentioned.

    “There was all the time hope with God that I might return (dwelling),” mentioned Ivannikova-Katsemon, who has kids, often pausing to regular her voice or maintain again tears. “The laborious factor was not having the ability to inform household and associates that I used to be alive and in captivity.”

‘NIGHTMARE COME TO LIFE’

    The 2 mentioned they had been held in an unheated room on the small manufacturing facility in Dymer, huddled on skinny mattresses and scraps of cardboard. Round 40 detainees had been crammed into the house, sharing a plastic pot for a bathroom.

    “It was like a nightmare come to life,” Khropun mentioned, chatting with Reuters again within the room the place he was held.

    He pointed to the soiled mattress he shared with a number of others. The ground was suffering from trash, empty packing containers of Russian military rations, zip ties and loops of tape that they mentioned had sure individuals’s palms.

    Ivannikova-Katsemon described how she was capable of barely loosen the binding round her wrists with a security pin that she saved maintain of all through her time in captivity by hiding it inside her hair tie.

    The Russians introduced meals a few times a day, principally military crackers and the occasional pot of cooked meals. There have been solely two plastic spoons so some individuals ate with their palms, others with scraps of paper, mentioned Khropun.

    One of many spoons was nonetheless jabbed right into a pot that was half-full of what seemed like rotting cabbage stew.

    A bullet gap was seen within the concrete ceiling of the room. One of many guards had fired into the air to spook them, they mentioned.

BELARUS AND RUSSIA

    After practically per week, Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon mentioned that they and round 14 different detainees had been loaded onto a army truck. They weren’t instructed the place they had been going, however the stop-start journey by Belarus would ultimately take them to official detention centres in Russia.

    In Belarus, they mentioned they had been interrogated by the Russian army. They every obtained a doc that included their picture, date of start, peak, hair color and different figuring out particulars that designated them as “an individual who has proven opposition to the particular army operation” – Russia’s time period for its struggle in Ukraine. 

They confirmed Reuters copies of the paperwork, titled ‘Certificates of Identification’ and issued by the Russian armed forces. 

    “The primary stage was being stripped bare, photographed, the noting of scars, I’ve just a few. Then the pouring of water (on me) and a beating,” Ivannikova-Katsemon mentioned. The doc she obtained lists her scars in a bit referred to as “Different options”.

    As soon as in Russia, the 2 mentioned they handed by a number of totally different detention centres. At one level, Ivannikova-Katsemon mentioned she was instructed she can be despatched to work in a timber camp in Russia’s far east.

    “I do not know the place, they only mentioned: Siberia,” she recalled.

    Khropun mentioned he confronted a number of interrogations in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, generally being compelled to kneel for lengthy intervals in chilly rooms or crushed on his knees or ribs.

He mentioned youthful prisoners had been singled out for particularly robust beatings by guards, who additionally shaved the captives’ heads and beards, generally leaving a tuft or half a moustache as a type of humiliation.

    He mentioned he tried to maintain up the morale of his fellow detainees, who he mentioned had been additionally Ukrainian civilians. “I’d say, ‘guys – we are going to all get dwelling 100%. There is only one small query: when?'”

RETURN HOME

    On April 8, the 2 mentioned they got again the garments they had been carrying when first detained, nonetheless soiled from the times spent on the manufacturing facility flooring.

In handcuffs, they had been taken by aircraft to Crimea from the place they had been pushed by truck to Ukraine-controlled territory on April 9.

They mentioned they’d been chosen for a prisoner swap, however didn’t know why they had been picked over others.

After round three weeks in captivity, they had been dwelling.

“After all there was the sense of pleasure, but it surely was by some means laborious to completely comprehend,” mentioned Khropun.

Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon mentioned they had been the one ones to be exchanged from the group of detainees who had been despatched from Dymer to Russia. They described their fears for the others they imagine are nonetheless being held in Russia.

The Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that 26 prisoners had been swapped with Russia on April 9, however haven’t named all of them. The workplace of deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who’s answerable for negotiating the swaps, didn’t reply to a request for remark in regards to the launch of Khropun and Ivannikova-Katsemon.

    On April 11, Vereshchuk mentioned in complete some 1,700 Ukrainian troopers and civilians had been being held in Russia and by pro-Russian separatists within the east of the nation.

Ukraine held round 600 Russian army prisoners of struggle and no civilians as of April 4, in line with Vereshchuk.

    Russia doesn’t launch actual figures, however in late March its human rights ombudswoman mentioned there have been greater than 500 Ukrainian POWs in Russia.

    Ivannikova-Katsemon mentioned she wears a medical corset and takes medication to handle the ache she feels because of her remedy in captivity.

    “However these monsters, who supposedly name themselves liberators, didn’t break me,” she mentioned, standing within the spring sunshine exterior the Dymer manufacturing facility.