Ukrainian soldier says Wagner forces tortured him ‘the way a cat plays with a mouse’
- Ilia Mykhalchuk was captured while fighting in Bakhmut and then spent weeks as a prisoner of the mercenary group before a swap
- He said rather than interrogating him for battlefield information, the fighters tortured him for fun
A Ukrainian soldier was captured by Russian forces – and rather than interrogating him for information, he said they tortured him for fun, like “the way a cat plays with a mouse,” he told The Washington Post.
Ilia Mykhalchuk, a 36-year-old soldier from the 67th mechanised brigade, told the Post that he was captured while fighting in Bakhmut earlier this year and then spent 46 days as a prisoner of the Wagner Group before a swap.
While captive, Mykhalchuk told the Post he noticed he wasn’t being interrogated for battlefield information or intelligence like higher-ranking prisoners – instead, he was being tortured psychologically.
“They tried to make us believe that we couldn’t trust each other, and that it was a kill-or-be-killed situation,” Mykhalchuk told the Post. “They were just playing with us, the way a cat plays with a mouse – when he catches it before he kills it.”
Mykhalchuk also said the Wagner Group crudely amputated both his arms above the elbow after they were severely damaged in battle, not stitching the skin before bandaging the sites.