Ukrainian POWs, officials point to mistreatment at hands of Russian captors

KYIV -- The scant food is the first thing Sgt. Mikhail Dianov of Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade recalls when asked about how he was treated in Russian captivity.

"They fed us 'mixed feed'. This is when some who-knows-what ingredients are boiled together to produce this gray mixture," Dianov told Caravanserai.

Dianov was among the fighters who led the defence of Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks that became an icon of Ukrainian resistance.

Russian forces captured Dianov in May, and held him and other defenders of Azovstal in a prison located in the occupied village of Elenovka, Donetsk region.

Four months later, Ukraine announced on September 21 a prisoner exchange with Russia for a record-high 215 imprisoned soldiers, including Dianov.

"Many of them have been brutally tortured," Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence, said during a press conference a day after the release, without providing further details.

Some of the detainees "are in a more or less normal physical condition, except for chronic malnutrition due to bad conditions of detention", Budanov said at the time.

"Before falling into Russian captivity, I weighed 85 kgs. This was just right for my height. During my captivity, I lost 25 kgs," said Dianov.

"Compared with Russian captivity, life was still okay for us at Azovstal. Yes, they bombed us. They fired at us from tanks. But at least we could get food there. In captivity, even basic salt was a luxury," he said.

A photo comparing the before-and-after of Dianov's body from his time in captivity went viral the day after his release.

"Even visually, you could see how different the appearance and well-being of the liberated Ukrainians and the returned Russians were during this exchange," said Andriy Yusov, spokesperson of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.

"One of these Russians, who looked very well, well-fed, later spoke of how the Ukrainians didn't let him eat. It was comical," said Yusov.

"The problems with food in Russian captivity are not isolated cases, but a systemic phenomenon," he said.

Since the start of the invasion on February 24, Ukraine and Russia have conducted 24 prisoner exchanges, freeing 808 from Russian captivity, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence as of October 2.

Terrible conditions

The lack of monitoring of prisoners-of-war (POW) conditions is just one of the reasons for the terrible conditions of Russian captivity, Dianov said.

Under the Third Geneva Convention, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is obliged to monitor the conditions in which POWs are kept, whether they are receiving medical assistance and whether the state is treating them humanely.

Russia has denied the ICRC access to prisoners held at Elenovka.

"Add to this the rotation process, where supervisors are replaced every month. When we first arrived, the guards ... were decent," Dianov said. However, with each successive rotation of guards, conditions became worse and worse.

He did not rule out that the Russian captors were deliberately changed each month to test Ukrainian POWs' endurance.

"There is no help for the wounded there. I received care from our own captive medics, who had ended up in the prison before me," recalled Dianov, who was wounded in his right hand when captured by the Russians.

"There are still a lot of injured with open wounds in Elenovka, and that worries me very much. [They are] in total unsanitary conditions. This leads to gangrene."

Under Russia's current government, it is impossible to talk of improving POW conditions there, said Olekandra Matviichuk, a Ukrainian human rights activist and head of the Center for Civil Liberties.

"It's not a state with laws, state bodies, the separation of powers and some institutions. It is a gas-and-oil pump run by people who have decided that in order to maintain their power, they need to play along with this Russian imperial complex and annex new territories," she said.

Russian prisoners in Ukraine

Unlike their Russian counterparts, Ukrainian forces are treating Russian POWs humanely, according to Matviichuk.

Russian POWs are being held at a camp separately from the general prison population, she said.

"For security reasons and to avoid Russian provocations, the location of this POW camp is undisclosed. Importantly, Ukrainian authorities claim that this camp occupies all the buildings and land of an institution. There is not a single convict in it, only prisoners-of-war," said Matviichuk.

Representatives of the ICRC have access to Russian POWs in Ukraine, she added.

"Here prisoners-of-war receive food, contact with relatives and medical examinations," said Yusov, the intelligence directorate spokesman.

The treatment of POWs in Russia and Ukraine exemplifies the civilizational gulf between the two countries, he added.

"Living in a democratic, civilized country that adheres to international law is itself a high guarantee that Russian soldiers, and Russians in general, do not have, even when serving in the army within the Russian Federation," said Yusov.