Over a thousand days of Russian hell and torture for defending Ukraine

Anastasia Savova’s father is one of over 1300 Ukrainian marines who have been held prisoner by the Russians for over a thousand days.  Anastasia knows that her father contracted tuberculosis in the horrific conditions of a Russian prison, as well as a problem with his legs (she says that these “are rotting”).  These scant details are, however, only thanks to information from freed prisoners of war, as Russia is blocking any contact with the prisoners of war at all.  Ukrainian prisoners are also moved frequently from one prison to another and Anastasia has no idea where her father is currently held or, chillingly, even whether he is alive.  Such an information vacuum is agonizing for the families, especially since at least twelve marines are known to have died, probably through torture and ill-treatment, in Russian captivity and the lack of adequate (or any) medical care.  Nothing at all is known about one thousand other marines who are registered as having disappeared without trace.

Anastasia is the head of ‘Marine Corps Strength’, an organization formed to provide advocacy for the prisoners of war [POW] and support for their families.   During a press conference to mark 1000 days of captivity, she and other participants expressed clear frustration with the failure of international structures, especially the  International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] to fulfil their mandate and at least obtain information about the imprisoned marines.   Bohdan Okhrimenko, Head of Ukraine’s Prisoners of War Coordination Headquarters, reported that 505 marines have been freed to date and confirmed that they and other released POWs are the main source of information about the prisoners of war remaining in Russian prisons, including 1300 marines.  While expressing gratitude to those countries, particularly from the Middle East, who have helped negotiate exchanges of prisoners, Okhrimenko was critical of the ICRC which, in his view, pays insufficient attention to the plight of Ukrainians whom the Russians are holding prisoner.  The ICRC response is generally that Russia is not providing them with access, but the frustration expressed at the press conference is nothing new, with freed prisoners of war also fairly critical.

Ukraine has been waiting for agreement over medical commissions for a year and a half, Okhrimenko says without any success, although these are envisaged by the Geneva Convention.  Some new mechanisms are, however, being developed which he hopes may bring about a breakthrough.  Olena Beliachkova from the Media Initiative for Human Rights noted, however, that the problem is partly that Russia does not want to allow such medical commissions which would mean that it was given three months to comply with the recommendations made.  Russia is not accustomed to complying with any such recommendations or requirements.  The same is likely to be a problem with another mechanism currently under discussion, namely the involvement of a ‘patron’ state.  This would, first of all, have to be a country that Russia viewed as ‘neutral’, but would also be senseless unless Russia was willing to comply, at least to the extent of allowing this country’s representatives access to the prisoners and enabling a comprehensive list of prisoners to be drawn up.

Over 100 Ukrainian marines have been subjected to fake ‘trials’ and sentenced to huge terms of imprisonment.  As reported, the marines and other defenders of Mariupol are typically accused of Russia’s war crimes in its relentless bombing and shelling of civilian targets in Mariupol.  The ‘trials’ are usually, if not always, based solely on videoed ‘confessions’ which were almost certainly extracted through torture.

Russia’s systematic and widespread torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war has been documented by, among others, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine. 

Beliachkova reports that freed prisoners of war say that the marines were subjected to particularly savage torture.  This may well be in reprisal for the 36th Separate Marine Brigade’s refusal to betray their oath back in 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea.

Anastasia, who served in 36th Marine Brigade, has recalled how they stood near their barrack at Russia’s notorious Olenivka prison in occupied Donbas and for five hours watched as around ten Russian soldiers in balaclavas used batons to beat and set dogs on the prisoners of war as they were taken from coaches.

Milana Kolomiyets spent two years trying to secure the release of her marine son, Yuriy Hulchyk.  When finally released in an exchange of prisoners,  he was in such a bad physical and psychological state when freed in an exchange of prisoners that, for some time, he could not speak at all.  “What happens to our lads in captivity”, Milana Kolomiyets says, is outside the realm of humanity.”

Maria Klymyk from the Media Initiative for Human Rights explains that a large number of marines were transferred at the end of April 2022 from Olenivka to SIZO [remand prison] No. 2 in Tagenrog (Russia), one of the most horrific places where Russia imprisons Ukrainian POWs.  Both men and women were subjected to brutal treatment on arrival, with the Russians using batons and tasers. The men were subsequently tortured to extract so-called ‘confessions to killing civilians’ in Mariupol, while the women were accused of ill-treatment of Russian prisoners of war.  One of the women, Victoria, says that for her, Tagenrog is synonymous with fear.  “I will never be able to forget the screams of the guys who were being tortured on our floor.  Or the dogs whom they would set on us during the ‘walk”[the time outside the cell, normally in an enclosed courtyard].  She mentions also the exhausting physical labour that they were barely able to carry out as they had so little to eat.  She adds that, in a month and a half, she lost 20 kilograms.

In the autumn of 2022, the Russians began preparing SIZO No. 2 in Tagenrog for similar treatment of Ukrainian defenders from the Azov Regiment, and marines were sent to other Russian prisoners.   The worst of these, where male prisoners of war were treated particularly savagely was at prison colony No. 1 in Tula oblast.  One of those who survived recalls how one of the marines was flung into a punishment cell, with the Russians trying to force him into giving them a supposed ‘confession’ to killing civilian women.  He was prevented from sleeping for around a week, and given a pitiful amount of food, while being taken out several times a day and mercilessly beaten.

It was likely at this prison, in Donskoi, Tula oblast, that Ivan Makarov from the 501st  Naval Infantry Battalion was tortured to death.

In April 2023, the Russians returned the body of another prisoner of war – 22-year-old Sviatoslav Saltykov who played in the military orchestra of the 36th Marine