In Russia, Vyazemskoye Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 2 has become a place of torture for Ukrainian captives. Read on for three stories of our soldiers.
Alexander Gritsyuk in captivity
The man was captured in April 2022 near Novobakhmutovka. In January 2024, his relatives were informed that Alexander's body had been returned from captivity.
– We live in Volyn in the city of Kiverka. My husband Alexander worked as a builder. From the first days of a full-scale war, he said: Who else, if not me? And he volunteered. He fought in the 110th brigade named after Mark Bezruchko, — says his wife Oksana.
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The woman only once received a letter from her husband and it was undoubtedly written under dictation. Oksana received the first news about the abuse of her husband in early January 2024.
– In early January 2024, I received information from another of my husband’s cellmates. This time I heard that my husband was being bullied. And already on January 24, an investigator from Kyiv called me and said that there was an exchange of bodies in December 2023, and they have the body of my husband, — says Oksana.
A woman notes that it was the worst day of her life.
“When we arrived in Kyiv on January 25 to identify the body, I was shocked by what I saw. It was a terrible picture. I was especially struck by how skinny the body was brought. The pathologist said that there was not even fifty kilograms in it, says Oksana.
According to her, the man was tall – 180 cm and before captivity weighed 110 kg, was physically healthy.
– What was left of him were only bones and skin. The head was all blue, the nose was on one side, the index fingers were without nails. Whether they were pulled out or beaten off, I don’t know. Traces of torture all over the body,” Oksana notes.
Photo: Vlada and Kostyantyn Liberov /Texty.org.ua
Cellmates told the prisoner of war's wife that her husband was beaten very severely every day because he was tall, handsome, because he was from Western Ukraine and did not want to speak Russian.
The date of death was written to him as November 16, 2023. The conclusion of our Ukrainian pathologist indicated “tuberculosis”. The woman is trying to appeal this cause of death, since there were clear signs of torture on the body.
Vitaly Klochenko in captivity
The man was captured in April 2022. In April of this year, relatives were informed that Vitaly had been returned from captivity dead.
Photo: Vlada and Kostyantin Liberovy/Texty.org.ua
Before the full-scale war, he already served — from 2014 to 2015 he was in the 28th mechanized brigade and had the status of a combat participant. He went without hesitation in 2020, although he and his wife already had three children.
– In March 2022, I found out that they were in Mariupol. The husband did not say where they were, he simply said that they were in Mariupol. We later learned that they were at the Ilyich plant, from where they were captured. This happened on April 12,” says his wife Oksana.
The brothers-in-arms, who together with Vitaly were in captivity, after their return spoke about the attitude of the Russians towards them. At that time, Oksana’s husband was already suffering from tuberculosis, he was very thin, with a broken nose.
– As I was told, there was nothing good there. They lived in the basement. They fed us what they feed pigs, and they also gave us two spoons. They beat me badly. If a person fell or lost consciousness, they would put a shocker to his ear to help him come to his senses. And they continued again. How to avoid getting sick after something like this? And the guys also said that they could deliberately place a person with tuberculosis in the cell in order to infect others, — she says.
On April 17, the woman was given terrible news and invited to identify the body from a photograph.
– The photographs were really scary. On the one hand, the body was already half-decomposed. On the other hand, even in this state it was clear that he was being bullied and beaten. And yet – terrible thinness. Before he was captured, he was 185 cm tall and of normal build. And now it was just terrible how thin he was,” she notes.
The woman notes numerous violations by government agencies. For example, she still cannot make a death certificate because the place of the man’s death is not indicated.
Alexey Cretu in captivity
The man encountered a full-scale invasion in the Lugansk region, where he was captured. First, he was taken to pre-trial detention center No. 17 in Lugansk, and from there to the Vyazemsky pre-trial detention center, where he stayed for almost two years. Returned from captivity, now being treated for tuberculosis and hepatitis B acquired in captivity.
Photo: Vlada and Kostyantin Liberovy/Texty.org.ua
The man notes that in the Vyazemsky pre-trial detention center the attitude was terrible, and the conditions were simply unbearable.
— Every single day during the morning inspection they beat me and humiliated me. The same shocker – they didn’t spare it for us. In the morning, with getting up at 6:00 until 10:10, we stood without moving in the cell. You stand facing the door: you can’t even lower your head, because they think that you’re sleeping then. And in each cell there was video surveillance. Usually two video cameras, rarely one at a time. And your every move was tracked,” he says.
He notes that in the cells where they were kept in the winter, it was at best 10-12 degrees, and in the summer they were given hellish heat, turning on the heating and closing the windows. According to the man, they were fed poorly and were taken to the bathhouse several times a week.
– And so they had women in the bathhouse. And they really loved to beat us in the genitals with combat boots, shockers, whatever,” says Alexey.
They also beat prisoners during interrogations.
– Here I am, a simple border guard, not a stormtrooper, not a Marine, not a machine gunner. And during these interrogations I lost half of my teeth. It’s scary to imagine what they did during interrogations with machine gunners or snipers, — he adds.
This is how our prisoners are abused in every Russian pre-trial detention center. According to the Human Rights Media Initiative, today Ukrainian prisoners are held in 42 pre-trial detention centers and correctional colonies in Russia.
