Starvation, unsanitary conditions and psychological pressure: border guard talking about Russian captivity
Soldier Pavlo Pikovets was defending Mariupol and ended up in captivity in Olenivka prison. Later, because of his injury, Russians transferred him to a hospital in occupied Donetsk.
Source: State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
Details: Pikovets, the border guard, had his hand injured during the battle for Mariupol where his brothers-in-arms and him were breaking through to the Azovstal steel plant.
He ended up in captivity in May, together with other defenders. The occupiers took him to the penal colony in Olenivka. Pikovets says the conditions there were awful.
Quote from Pavlo: "We slept on the concrete floor. Then, they added several mattresses; we threw them crosswise for as many brothers-in-arms to have some rest as possible," Pavlo recounted.
More details: Conditions in the building were totally unsanitary. Portions of food were very small, as well. The Russians applied methods of psychological pressure; for instance, they woke the captives up at night.
Pavlo was transferred to the hospital in Donetsk because of his injury; however, they continued applying psychological pressure.
Quote from Pavlo: "They told us every day that Kyiv had been supposedly captured already, that Poland took the country’s west. They said that Ukraine rejected us… took us to buses and pretended they were taking us to a prisoner swap multiple times. The journalists they brought took our comments. A bus left the territory of the hospital, drove about 100 metres, then turned around, and we were brought back to the hospital."
More details: The real prisoner swap took place on 29 June in Zaporizhzhia. All captives were taken to hospital, then transferred to Kyiv, to the Border Guard Service hospital.
Pavlo finally met his wife there.
"This moment when I go out and see her… These emotions. Tears. Tears of joy," the man recounted.
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