Ukraine war: An inside look at prison life for captured Russian troops
- Ukraine allows media access to some Russian prisoners held in Kyiv facility
- Russia is investigating the treatment of its soldiers which it called ‘inhumane’
Slumped against his metal bed frame in a detention centre in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Sergeant Nikolai Matveev relives the ambush that made him one of the conflict’s first prisoners of war.
The Russian soldier rests awkwardly on what remains of his left leg as he recounts how he was wounded – the shock of shell fire, the searing pain, the hours crawling through frozen woodland desperate for help.
The 36-year-old spoke after the Ukrainian authorities granted Agence France-Presse’s request for unconditional access to Russian prisoners. However it was impossible to verify if he was speaking freely or under duress.
Matveev was maimed by a shell as his unit came under attack in northern Ukraine on February 24, in the opening hours of an invasion that has sparked nearly six months of bloodshed and accusations of abuses of POWs on both sides.
His leg was shattered “in the first 10 to 15 seconds of the fight. All the other soldiers in the vehicle piled out as soon as the fighting calmed down. They tied my leg with a tourniquet,” Matveev said.
“After a while, I crawled out. Down by the wheels of the car, I prepared to fight, while the rest of the column moved onward.”