The Ukrainian marine was one of 215 prisoners freed in September, the biggest swap since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February. She and two other Ukrainians captured during the desperate battle for the city of Mariupol in the early months of the conflict told their stories to the Financial Times. They provide insight into one of the key battles of the early phase of the war – when several thousand fighters and dozens of civilians retreated to the giant Azovstal steelworks in squalid conditions as it was pounded by Russian forces – and a look at how Moscow treats prisoners of war . Captain Oleksandr Demchenko, a doctor and another of the freed prisoners, was only there because he had volunteered to fly reinforcements and supplies to Azovstal. “Mariupoli was already surrounded,” he said. “I realized it was probably a one-way ticket and there would be no return.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said such missions were “almost impossible” and that many did not survive. Demchenko did so and would spend the next six weeks treating severely wounded soldiers and civilians. Major Oleksandr Voronenko, the third of the freed Dead, was in Mariupol before the invasion as part of the 56th Ukrainian Motorized Brigade. He said the intensity of the fighting was terrifying as Russian forces retreated and the devastation incredible. “It felt like a long day in hell.”

Battle for Mariupoli

Mariupol, a strategically important port on Ukraine’s southern coast, was an early Russian target. Voronenko recalled how electricity, gas and water supplies were quickly cut off – a tactic now being used more widely by Putin in an attempt to break Ukraine’s resistance. Voronenko, who fought alongside the Marines, said the fighting was so intense that at times the sky was blocked by thick black smoke from the artillery and rockets that pulverized the city. These strikes killed thousands of civilians, according to estimates by local authorities and the UN. “It was continuous, violent fighting,” said Voronenko, who was shot in the leg. Strutinska recalled Russian tanks firing indiscriminately into apartment buildings, making her task of evacuating civilians nearly impossible. “It was my first time seeing this level of combat,” he said. “I tried to organize the removal of the dead but failed because the fighting was so extreme.” As Moscow stepped up its offensive over the next week, the remaining Ukrainian forces in the city, along with hundreds of civilians, including children, fell on two huge industrial facilities: the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and nearby Azovstal. Strutinska and Voronenko retreated with their units to the fortress of Ilyich’s works in March, where they found protection in its deep concrete bunkers. But supplies there and in Azovstal, where thousands of soldiers and civilians were also sheltering, were severely limited. That’s when Kyiv came up with a dangerous plan to save them. Oleksandr Demchenko, a doctor in the Medical Service of Ukraine, at the field hospital set up under the Azovstal steelworks © Courtesy of Oleksandr Demchenko Wounded fighters at the Azovstal field hospital in May. The facility was where Ukrainian forces defending Mariupol made their last stand © Dmytro Orest Kozatskyi/Azov Regiment Press Service/Handout/Reuters Demchenko and another doctor were flown in separate military helicopters with special forces, an operation he likened to “jumping out of a plane without a parachute.” “They separated us so that if one helicopter was shot down, at least the other would have a chance to make it,” he said. They faced enemy fire before landing near Mariupol and being transferred to a boat that took them to their destination. Demchenko immediately set up a makeshift hospital and operating theater to treat the wounded, many of whom he found in appalling condition. Sometimes working in near total darkness, he administered countless blood transfusions. faced gaping wounds to the head; bandaged abdominal injuries to prevent organ leakage. Set of broken bones; and amputated limbs — sometimes with little or no anesthetic. There were days when he and other doctors “didn’t leave the operating room for more than 30 hours.” One seriously injured man had a tourniquet on his leg for more than two weeks — “totally unthinkable,” according to Demchenko. The gangrene had set in by the time the doctor found him and amputated the leg above the knee. “By a miracle, he survived,” he added. “The most terrible thing was the massive airstrikes,” the doctor recalls. One explosion threw him into a concrete pillar across the room, while another caused three floors of concrete to collapse in one of the medical wards, killing several patients. As the Russians pounded them with heavier and heavier weapons, the Ukrainians were eventually forced to surrender – first the marines at Ilyich in April, then another group of marines and national guardsmen from the Azov regiment a month later. Azov is a former volunteer battalion with far-right members that has since been incorporated into the official military structure, but remains a favorite puppet of the Kremlin. Videos released by the Russian Defense Ministry showed Ukrainian troops exiting Azovstal with their hands in the air. They were met by soldiers who patted them down for weapons and checked them for tattoos before leading them to the buses that would take them to prison.

Imprisonment

Strutinska, Demchenko and Voronenko will be held in several different prisons for the next six months. All three served time in the notorious Olenivka prison in the occupied Donetsk region, which Zelenskyy has called a “concentration camp” for Ukrainian POWs. Olenivka has been under Russian control since the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014. An explosion in July destroyed a wing where Ukrainians arrested in Mariupol were being held, killing 53 people and wounding 75 others. None of the three interviewees were in Olenivka when it was hit .

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Kyiv accused Russia of being behind the attack to cover up the torture of Ukrainian prisoners and released audio recordings to support the claim. Moscow said without evidence that Ukraine used US-supplied missiles to destroy the facility. Russia has repeatedly blocked independent observers’ access to Olenivka. A UN fact-finding mission warned in September that its inability to access the site posed a “major obstacle to verifying” the allegations. None of the three POWs wanted to go into detail about the abuses they suffered in captivity. But other Ukrainian troops and human rights groups have documented how Russia and its proxy forces in the occupied territories have been abusing soldiers and civilian prisoners. In the early days, prisoners said they were crammed into tiny cells, where they slept without blankets. Food was scarce and they were given buckets of muddy water to drink, which sickened some of them. “Everyone was dehydrated and exhausted,” said Demchenko, who lost 45 pounds. More than 260 Ukrainian employees were evacuated from the Azovstal plant, including 52 who were seriously injured. Some 215 were later exchanged for 55 Russian soldiers and pro-Moscow Ukrainian MP Viktor Medvedchuk © Russia MOD/EYEPRESS/Reuters Prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in October. Ukrainian prisoners reported being bound and blindfolded before being taken to swap locations © Ukrainian Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War via Telegram/Handout/Reuters Strutinska had to share a cell with four to 30 female soldiers. “We slept on top of each other,” he said, adding that they would sing Ukrainian folk songs and pop hits to keep their spirits up. He said they were actually treated better at Olenivka, which was run by pro-Russian Ukrainians, than they were later when they were transferred to a prison in Taganrog, Russia. There, the Ukrainians said they suffered physical and verbal abuse, and Russian propaganda. “It was absolutely constant propaganda and currents of hate [toward Ukrainians]Voronenko said of the programs they were forced to watch on Russian television. As the colder September weather arrived, they huddled in their unheated cells and hoped for freedom.

Release

It was September 21 when the captives were awakened by Russian guards who blindfolded them and painfully tied their hands behind their backs. Some thought they were being transferred to another prison or sent back to Mariupol amid rumors that mock “trials” of those arrested in the city were being prepared. To their surprise, they were exchanged for 55 Russians and pro-Moscow Ukrainian MP Viktor Medvedchuk, a friend of Vladimir Putin who was arrested this year on charges of treason. While the soldiers expressed disappointment at Medvedchuk’s release, they said Ukraine got the better end of the deal. Their desire now is to free the comrades who are still in captivity. They said Western countries must do more and called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to keep its promises not only to facilitate the release of captive catches, but also to gain access to facilities in Russian-held territory to monitor conditions and treatment. Zelensky accused the ICRC of not doing enough, particularly in Olenivka. The ICRC…