Ukrainian POWs die in Russian prisons. Autopsies level to a system of brutality

[ad_1] KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — “The whole lot will probably be all proper.”

Ukrainian soldier Serhii Hryhoriev mentioned this so typically throughout temporary telephone calls from the entrance that his spouse and two daughters took it to coronary heart. His youthful daughter, Oksana, tattooed the phrase on her wrist as a talisman.

Even after Hryhoriev was captured by the Russian military in 2022, his anxious household clung to the idea that he would finally be OK. In any case, Russia is sure by worldwide regulation to guard prisoners of warfare.

When Hryhoriev lastly got here house, although, it was in a physique bag.

A Russian demise certificates mentioned the 59-year-old died of a stroke. However a Ukrainian post-mortem and a former POW who was detained with him inform a distinct story about how he died – considered one of violence and medical neglect by the hands of his captors.

Hryhoriev is considered one of greater than 200 Ukrainian POWs who've died whereas imprisoned since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years in the past. Abuse inside Russian prisons was seemingly a contributing think about many of those deaths, in response to officers from human rights teams, the U.N., the Ukrainian authorities and a Ukrainian health worker who has carried out dozens of POW autopsies.

The officers say the jail demise toll adds to evidence that Russia is systematically brutalizing captured troopers. They are saying forensic discrepancies like Hryhoriev’s, and the repatriation of our bodies which are mutilated and decomposed, level to an effort to cowl up alleged torture, hunger and poor well being care at dozens of prisons and detention facilities throughout Russia and occupied Ukraine.

Russian authorities didn't reply to requests for remark. They've beforehand accused Ukraine of mistreating Russian POWs — allegations the U.N. has partially backed up, although it says Ukraine’s violations are far much less widespread and extreme than what Russia is accused of.

Ukrainian troopers sit in a bus within the Sumy area of Ukraine after getting back from captivity in Russia, Could 31, 2024. (AP Picture/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

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‘Alive and effectively’ Hryhoriev joined the Ukrainian military in 2019 after he misplaced his job as an workplace employee at a highschool. When the warfare started three years later, he was stationed with different troopers in Mariupol, an industrial port metropolis that was the positioning of a fierce battle — and much from his house within the central Poltava area.

On April 10, 2022, Hryhoriev referred to as his household to reassure them that “every part will probably be all proper.” That was the final time they ever spoke to him.

Two days later, a relative of a soldier in Hryhoriev’s unit referred to as to say the lads had been captured. After Mariupol fell to Russia, greater than 2,000 troopers defending town turned Russian prisoners.

Quickly his household acquired a name from the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross, which confirmed he was alive and formally registered as a POW, guaranteeing his safety underneath the Geneva Conventions. “We had been informed: ‘which means every part is okay … Russia has to return him,’” Hryhoriev’s spouse, Halyna, recalled.

In August 2022, she acquired a letter from him, that addressed her by a nickname. “My pricey Halochka,” he wrote. “I'm alive and effectively. The whole lot will probably be all proper.”

Determined for extra info, his daughter Oksana, 31, scoured Russian social media accounts, the place movies of Ukrainian POWs recurrently appeared. Ultimately, she noticed him in a single — wanting gaunt and lacking enamel. His grey hair was cropped very quick, framing light options now partially lined by a beard.

Within the video, seemingly shot underneath duress, Hryhoriev mentioned to the digital camera: “I’m alive and effectively.”

“However if you happen to checked out him, you would see that wasn’t true,” Oksana mentioned.

The reality was dismal, mentioned Oleksii Honcharov, a 48-year-old Ukrainian POW who was detained with him.

Honcharov lived in the identical jail barracks as Hryhoriev beginning within the fall of 2022. Over a interval of months, he witnessed Hryhoriev take in the identical extreme punishment as each different POW on the Kamensk-Shakhtinsky Correctional Colony in southwest Russia.

“Everybody acquired hit -- no exceptions,” mentioned Honcharov, who was repatriated to Ukraine in February as a part of a prisoner swap. “Some extra, some much less, however all of us took it.”

Honcharov endured months of chest ache whereas in captivity. Even then, the beatings by no means stopped, he mentioned, and generally they started after his pleas for medical care, which had been ignored.

“Towards the top, I may barely stroll,” mentioned Honcharov, who was identified with tuberculosis as soon as again in Ukraine – an more and more widespread ailment amongst returning POWs.

A <a class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://ukraine.un.org/en/280096-treatment-prisoners-war-and-update-human-rights-situation-ukraine?afd_azwaf_tok=eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdWQiOiJ1a3JhaW5lLnVuLm9yZyIsImV4cCI6MTc0NzA3MTE0NSwiaWF0IjoxNzQ3MDcxMTM1LCJpc3MiOiJ0aWVyMS04NTlkNjk3ODY5LXFjNWdzIiwic3ViIjoiMTI2OjUyMDE6MTAyOjYwZjY6NGQxZDplZGQ4OjQ5MGU6ZGQ4IiwiZGF0YSI6eyJ0eXBlIjoiaXNzdWVkIiwicmVmIjoiMjAyNTA1MTJUMTczMjE1Wi0xODU5ZDY5Nzg2OXFjNWdzaEMxQkwxdXd0ODAwMDAwMDA5MTAwMDAwMDAwMHVrMTkiLCJiIjoicVJSVWdQZlU1UzZEODZDc3huOVdONkdNSnAtY28tT2VqM1NaNV9jU1lROCIsImgiOiJ2ZTNQWkl2bE52eWt4bmRBZEZubGJ1dFJuTzJlWk5NdDFNcjhzdGtBUFFnIn19.szRRNUdiboT1hO8O8bEUUHlyxRdWs2G5o-u6s8-LrWUWoTwpoaezENmC2zvVP8GyvOkk_LrFbApuaPUvTEiDJsNRvRXGCfXqWCeHx7Xzin3lnUoQnWVswHJ48D4J5k4cVhyoie9Tjk6dSqtfK7QNebGie6oBa3Oebb2ns-BR1hl6ir12Fs7OFXkLIf4Pdi9Klq8IdNTdYPqlfTcQ2HQDoe6dUvGGhRMlOToG45Lp1NXHIZNqdClmHekx-qwcbrWishl97ReaFuGdhao1K014wZKi4J3qouWDRSVxltbiZJ3Tkm3sJVRJBq0APWDTRa4_ipYGRP-wf9mLTx_cSs3X2g.WF3obl2IDtqgvMFRqVdYkD5s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 U.N. report discovered that 95% of launched Ukrainian POWs had endured “systematic” torture. Prisoners described beatings, electrical shocks, suffocation, sexual violence, extended stress positions, mock executions, and sleep deprivation.

“This conduct couldn't be extra illegal,” mentioned Danielle Bell, the U.N.’s prime human rights monitor in Ukraine.

The report additionally mentioned some Russian POWs had been mistreated by Ukrainian forces throughout their preliminary seize -- together with beatings, threats and electrical shocks. However the abuse stopped as soon as Russian POWs had been moved to official Ukrainian detention facilities, the report mentioned.

Hryhoriev was bodily sturdy and sometimes outlasted youthful prisoners throughout pressured workouts, Honcharov recalled. However over time, he started displaying indicators of bodily decline: dizziness, fatigue and, finally, an lack of ability to stroll with out assist.

But regardless of his worsening situation, jail officers offered solely minimal well being care, Honcharov mentioned.

Fingerprints taken from the physique of a Ukrainian prisoner of warfare returned by Russia, at a morgue in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 24, 2024. (AP Picture/Alex Babenko)

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Piecing collectively how POWs died In a shiny, sterile room with the sour-sweet odor of human decomposition, Inna Padei performs autopsies on Ukrainian troopers repatriated by Russia, in addition to civilians exhumed from mass graves. Lots of of our bodies zipped up in black plastic baggage have been delivered in refrigerated vehicles to the morgue the place she works in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

Those that died in battle are nonetheless sporting navy fatigues and sometimes have apparent exterior wounds. The our bodies of former POWs are wearing jail uniforms and are sometimes mutilated and decomposed.

It's the job of Padei and different forensic consultants to piece collectively how troopers like Hryhoriev died. These experiences are sometimes the one dependable info the troopers’ households get — and they are going to be utilized by Ukraine, together with testimony from former POWs, to carry warfare crimes prices towards Russia on the Worldwide Prison Courtroom.

The physique of a former POW just lately examined by Padei had an almond-sized fracture on the correct aspect of its cranium. That urged the soldier was struck by a blunt object – a blow probably sturdy sufficient to have killed him immediately, or shortly after, she mentioned.

“These accidents could not at all times be the direct explanation for demise,” Padei mentioned, “however they clearly point out using drive and torture towards the servicemen.”

Earlier this yr, Amnesty International documented widespread torture of Ukrainian POWs in Russia. Its report was particularly crucial of Russia’s secrecy concerning the whereabouts and situation of POWs, saying it refused to grant rights teams or well being staff entry to its prisons, leaving households in the dead of night for months or years about their family members.

Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross staff within the Sumy area of Ukraine examine physique baggage holding Russian troopers, Could 31, 2024. (AP Picture/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

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Of the greater than 5,000 POWs Russia has repatriated to Ukraine, at the least 206 died in captivity, including more than 50 when an explosion ripped by a Russian-controlled jail barracks, in response to the Ukrainian authorities. An extra 245 Ukrainian POWs had been killed by Russian soldiers on the battlefield , in response to Ukrainian prosecutors.

The toll of lifeless POWs is anticipated to rise as extra our bodies are returned and recognized, however forensic consultants face important challenges in figuring out causes of demise.

In some instances, inside organs are lacking. Different instances, it seems as if bruises or accidents have been hidden or eliminated.

Ukrainian officers consider the mutilation of our bodies is an effort by Russia to hide the true causes of demise. Excessive decomposition is one other impediment, officers say.

“They maintain the our bodies till they attain a state the place nothing could be decided,” mentioned Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian authorities company in command of POW affairs.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has mentioned the immediate exchange of POWs should be a part of any ceasefire settlement, together with the return of thousands of Ukrainian civilians , together with youngsters forcibly deported to Russia. A major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine came about over the weekend.

The Related Press interviewed family members of 21 Ukrainian POWs who died in captivity. Autopsies carried out in Ukraine discovered that 5 of those POWs died of coronary heart failure, together with troopers who had been 22, 39 and 43. 4 others died from tuberculosis or pneumonia, and three others perished, respectively, from an an infection, asphyxia and a blunt drive head wound.

Padei mentioned instances like these — and others she has seen — are crimson flags, suggesting that bodily abuse and untreated accidents and sickness seemingly contributed to many troopers’ deaths.

“Underneath regular or humane situations, these wouldn't have been deadly,” Padei mentioned.

In a single post-mortem report, coroners mentioned a person had been electrocuted and crushed simply days earlier than dying of coronary heart failure and excessive emaciation. Different autopsies famous that our bodies confirmed indicators of gangrene or untreated infections.

“The whole lot the returned prisoners describe … we see the identical on the our bodies,” Padei mentioned.

Halyna Hryhorieva, the spouse of Serhii Hryhoriev, a prisoner of warfare who died in Russia, sits at house in Pyriatyn, Ukraine, March 9, 2025. (AP Picture/Alex Babenko)

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‘Angel within the sky’ Months into Hryhoriev’s detention on the Kamensk-Shakhtinsky jail – and after his daughter noticed him within the Russian military’s social media video -- his well being deteriorated considerably, in response to Honcharov.

However as a substitute of being despatched to a hospital, Hryhoriev was moved to a tiny cell that was remoted from different prisoners. One other Ukrainian captive, a paramedic, was assigned to stick with him.

“It was damp, chilly, with no lighting in any respect,” recalled Honcharov.

He died in that cell a few month later, Honcharov mentioned. It was Could 20, 2023, in response to his Russian demise certificates.

The Hryhoriev household didn’t study he had died till greater than six months later, when a former POW reached out. Then, in March 2024, police in central Ukraine referred to as: A physique had arrived with a Russian demise certificates bearing Hryhoriev’s title. A DNA take a look at confirmed it was him.

An post-mortem carried out in Ukraine disputed Russia’s declare that Hryhoriev died of a stroke. It mentioned he bled to demise after blunt trauma to his stomach that additionally broken his spleen.

Hryhoriev’s physique was handed over to the household final June, and shortly after he was buried in his hometown of Pyriatyn.

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To honor him, Hryhoriev’s spouse and older daughter, Yana, adopted Oksana’s lead and tattooed their wrists with the optimistic expression he had drilled into them.

“Now now we have an angel within the sky watching over us,” Halyna mentioned. “We consider every part will probably be all proper.”

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Related Press reporters Yehor Konovalov, Alex Babenko and Anton Shtuka in Kyiv, and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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