52-year-old Ukrainian prisoner of war Denys Dorokhin needs urgent medical intervention for gangrene in the arm from an injury sustained while defending Mariupol in April 2022 and long untreated. Although doctors have made it clear that the arm must be amputated, this is unlikely to happen because his Russian captors are planning to stage a second show trial of the Ukrainian prisoner of war, this time on grotesque ‘terrorism’ charges.
On 6 July, Dorokhin’s daughter Eva used her Instagram page to issue a desperate plea for publicity to ensure that her father returns home alive. Denys Dorokhin (b. 08 May 1974) joined the Azov Regiment back in 2016, long before Russia’s launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Azov Regiment was based in Mariupol and played a major role in the defence of the city. During this, on 1 April 2022, Dorokhin received a gunshot wound to his arm. Eva writes that the surgeons at the Azovstal Steelworks managed to stabilize the situation, but it was clear that in order to save the arm, he needed a specialized operation and medical evacuation. This did not happen for obvious reasons and, on 18 May 2022, Dorokhin was among the Mariupol defenders who, in compliance with an order from Headquarters, withdrew from Azovstal and were taken prisoner by the Russians.
Dorokhin has been imprisoned ever since. He was held first at the Olenivka ‘concentration camp’ where Russia almost certainly deliberately killed over 50 of his comrades-in-arms at the end of July 2022. Since then, he has been held in different prison colonies or remand prisons, either in occupied Donetsk oblast, or in Russia. His daughter says that he is facing the next move to the north of the Russian Federation, “a new trial, new beatings, new transfers”.
From recent letters, Eva writes, she has learned of a catastrophic deterioration in his condition. The lack of treatment for his wound has stopped blood from reaching the limb and there is virtually no circulation in it. His tendons have atrophied and his fingers have gone black.
Dorokhin was, at least, examined in the city hospital with Russian doctors diagnosing gangrene of the upper limb and saying that the only possible treatment is immediate amputation.
Instead, however, Dorokhin is likely to be moved, with the POW facing a new ‘trial’ in a month and will almost certainly be held, without the necessary medical treatment, in the Donetsk SIZO [remand prison] for at least three months. Gangrene, if untreated, is extremely serious and is likely to be fatal even where the person’s health has not already been critically undermined by over four years of torture and the appalling conditions in Russian captivity.
Both Ukrainian and international investigators estimate that at least 90% of Ukrainian prisoners of war are subjected to torture, with freed former POWs confirming that members of the Azov Regiment and defenders of Mariupol have received particularly savage treatment. Many are known to have died, either directly as the result of torture, or through failure to provide medical treatment.
By 2023, Russia had begun churning out ‘sentences’ against Ukrainian prisoners of war with men sentenced to 20-30 years or even life imprisonment on immensely cynical charges. In many cases, defenders of Mariupol have been accused of precisely those war crimes that Russia was committing on a daily basis. Most of the alleged ‘trials’ took place at the so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic high court’, with the only ‘evidence’ shown being supposed ‘confessions’, videoed by Russia’s ‘Investigative Committee’, where men who are totally at their captors’ mercy, appear to be reciting something they have been forced to say.
On 15 February 2024, Dorokhin was sentenced by ‘judge’ German Ivanovich Aleksandrov from this unrecognized occupation ‘high court’ to 28 years’ maximum-security imprisonment. The Russian invaders, who had relentlessly bombed and shelled civilian targets, accused Dorokhin and six other Ukrainian prisoners of war of ‘homicide’, under Article 105 of Russia’s criminal code.
The new ‘trial’ and sentence are no less cynical. On 2 August 2022, Russia’s supreme court passed an absurd ruling, declaring the Azov Regiment to be ‘a terrorist organization’. This was widely condemned as a ploy aimed at persecuting prisoners of war who had been particularly active in defending Mariupol. This was soon to be the case, with the Russians quite unperturbed by i) the fact that the prisoners of war in most cases had been taken prisoner long before the ruling; and ii) the lack of any grounds or legality in calling the Azov Regiment, which is a part of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, ‘a terrorist organization’.
His Russian captors are placing Dorokhin’s life in danger for the sake of a surreal parody of a trial, where the charges are based on a flawed supreme court ruling, and the outcome known in advance. In all these cases, prisoners of war are charged with ‘involvement in a terrorist organization’, under Article 205.5 § 2 of Russia’s criminal code, and with ‘training in terrorist activities’ under Article 205.3.
His ‘conviction’ at the end of this travesty and a long sentence are not in question. If he survives, and publicity is indeed vital to ensure that Russia stops placing his life in direct and very real danger.
