When Ukrainian marine, Mikhailo Dianov, was launched from Russian detention, his picture shocked the world.
His physique was emaciated after 4 months as a prisoner of conflict.
When I met him, he was unrecognisable from the photographs I’d seen of the well-built fighter in Mariupol, Ukraine. His garments hung from his frail body. His gaunt face appeared far older than his 42 years.
I had so many questions. Crucially, did you are worried you would not survive?
“We thought about this every day,” Mikhailo tells me. “We first began having these ideas on the Azovstal metal plant.
“At Azovstal we thought it was the end.”
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Mikhailo was taken following weeks below siege in Mariupol defending the metal works. It was the final nook of town to fall in May.
He was amongst 215 lately launched in a high-profile prisoner swap with Russia, and spoke solely with Sky News about captivity.
“Believe me, after a month of being starved, when you close your eyes, you forget about your family, about your country, about everything. The only thing you think about is food.”
‘They handled us like animals’
Mikhailo misplaced 40kg (greater than six stone) in weight in his 4 months as a prisoner of conflict.
“It was impossible to eat. You were given 30 seconds for each meal,” says Mikhailo. “In 30 seconds you had to eat everything you could.
“Bread was intentionally very exhausting. Guys who had their tooth knocked out could not handle to eat in time.
“It was 30 seconds, and then you had to stop. Then you had to get up straight away and run. It was like that all the time.
“They handled us like animals.”
The meals sound pitiful, and the process of eating utterly humiliating.
This all took place in the Olenivka prison in Russian-controlled Donetsk – a place Mikhailo refers to as a concentration camp.
It clearly seems prisoners of war being held there are being starved deliberately.
Read more:
The fall of Mariupol
Prisoners have been ‘overwhelmed with sticks and given electrical shocks’
He describes how they might be thrown in solitary confinement and tortured for selecting up a berry from the bottom and consuming it.
He says they have been overwhelmed with sticks, given electrical shocks and had needles put below their nails
The format of the jail has focus camp connotations, too.
From the air, satellite tv for pc pictures reveal an identical blocks in a row the place prisoners are housed.
Mikahilo says the blocks are designed for 150 folks, however he was packed into one with 800 different prisoners.
The situations have been so cramped, his leg muscular tissues wasted and strolling is now a problem. We do not stroll far collectively and shortly discover a bench for him to relaxation.
It may be very exhausting for us to confirm what is going on in Olenivka jail as a result of lack of entry to Russian managed areas.
We’ve spoken to the accomplice of one other Azovstal fighter who was launched in the identical prisoner swap. She describes related situations and likewise refers back to the place as a focus camp.
Then there’s Mikhailo’s bodily situation, which speaks for itself.
One factor we do learn about Olenivka jail is it was bombed in July and greater than 50 folks have been killed. I ask Mikhailo concerning the assault.
He’d been at a distinct location on the time, receiving remedy on his arm. He describes a reckless operation carried out with a pair of pliers and no anaesthesia.
Before he was taken prisoner, a photograph at Azovstal exhibits Mikhailo with a bandage on his damaged proper arm. During his time in captivity, the bone healed in a semicircle on account of a scarcity of medical care.
Then this – the second he was launched.
“We were stripped completely naked. They took off our medical casts, everything. They searched us. And then we had to squat like that for five hours. Without a bench, of course.
“We merely waited. We did not know what was going to occur to us,” says Mikhailo.
He has a large graze at the top of his nose. I ask what happened.
“Duct tape,” he replies. “They wrapped tape round my head and pushed their legs into my abdomen, so they might make it tighter, and I spent a day, a day and a half like that.”
‘Lots of issues have misplaced their worth’
He travelled for 36 hours along with his eyes taped with no thought the place he was going – moved from a bus to an aeroplane to a bus once more.
It was solely after the tape was lastly eliminated that he realised he was again in Ukraine.
He now wants to realize 20kg earlier than he can have corrective surgical procedure on his arm.
The psychological affect will doubtless take far longer to deal with.
“Everyone is traumatised,” he tells me, “I consider myself to be a mentally strong person, but for me a lot of things have lost their value.”
The image he is painted of Russian detention is much worse than many imagined.
Many of the situations described are in opposition to the Geneva Conventions. And 1000’s extra Ukrainian prisoners of conflict are understood to nonetheless be in Olenivka jail.
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Source: information.sky.com”