The testimony of a prisoner of Ukrainian war just released sheds light on the terrible fate reserved for them in this conflict. The UN and NGOs are alarmed before the refusal of the two camps to authorize inspection visits.
by Emmanuel Grynszpan
Daily tobacco passages, infected food, light on 24 hours a day and complete absence of hygiene. This is the test that endured for five and a half months Viatcheslav Gorban, a prisoner of Ukrainian war in Russia. This 50 -year -old metallurgy engineer had chosen to take up arms on February 24 to defend his city, Marioupol, after Vladimir Putin launched his troops on Ukraine. Le Monde had met him two days later, while he was stuck at the entrance to the military hospital, a few hours before the industrial port was surrounded by Russian forces.
released the 1 er November as part of an exchange of prisoners with Russia, Viatcheslav Gorban literally melted. “I lost 23 pounds out of 85,” he explains in an equal voice. He is currently hospitalized in Dnipro for thyroid problems but should be released “in a week”. Its character has not changed: calm, selected, determined. Hardened by the tests. Before being taken prisoner, he spent two and a half months in the hell of Azovstal, this steel factory where he had formerly worked and which had transformed in the last bastion of the Ukrainian resistance.
At the time of the surrender of Azovstal, he declines his identity to employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and gives his daughter’s telephone number so that his relatives are warned of the fate that awaits him . “I have never seen members of NGOs again until my release,” notes the former prisoner.
Questioned by his Russian jailers, he explains that he was engaged in territorial defense, a non -professional body. This allows him to escape the more cruel treatment suffered by the members of the Azov regiment, objects of a particular hatred of the Russian authorities. After two weeks, he was transferred with 74 other prisoners of war to Russia, to be imprisoned at the Taganrog prison.
“We arrived early in the morning, blindfolded and hands tied. The welcome was brutal. We crossed a” human corridor “. The blows were raining on all sides. We suffered many interrogations, led by All Russian security structures: FSB, investigation committee, police, etc. They took me a DNA sample, made a 3D photo, they took my fingerprints, “he continues in a voice still equal.
“Free and without object violence”
begins a four -month ordeal. “We were beaten twice a day. Cell cell. The guards came out all five at the same time. Facing the wall, the legs apart, it lasted about five minutes. They hit us with the fists, the feet and batons . Not to speak or do anything, it was free and without object violence. Not all were beaten in the same way. Those who wore tattoos with Ukrainian symbols were much more Struck that the others. I am not tattooed. They still broke three ribs. “To this is added the obligation to sing the Russian national anthem and other patriotic songs. “You shouldn’t sing but howl the Russian anthem. It was moral harassment.”
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