Conflicts

Ukrainian soldiers who can taste freedom again recount the nightmare they went through in Russian prisons. Locked between four walls, forced to stand all day, beaten and humiliated. 


Since the beginning of the conflict, 1,300 have been freed by Russia. Very few of them testified to France Info.

Dmitro, 26, explains that he was locked up in a prison in the south of Russia: "This prison was dilapidated. Three meals a day but hey, even children eat more than that... And above all, entire days standing. It was forbidden to sit. You could only sit during meals otherwise they would beat you in the morning, in the evening". Today, he admits to suffering from varicose veins. "They used batons, tasers, attack dogs... They interrogated me twice a week. They looked up general knowledge questions on the internet. And if you didn't answer, they beat you."

Another Ukrainian soldier, Sergui, told France Info about the humiliation he suffered. "They humiliated us, morally and physically. Faced against the wall, legs and arms spread, blindfolded, and they asked you: what does UAF mean? You answered in Ukrainian, Ukrainian Armed Forces, and then they hit you in the back, shouting: speak Russian! They hit your kidneys, testicles, legs, neck, they hit you very hard."

The trauma is real, powerful. At night, they sometimes wake up suddenly and stand to attention. A reflex, a fear still creeping into a tried body.

(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: Midi Libre/France Info - Illustration: Unsplash)