Ukrainian ex‑prisoner recounts horrors of Russian captivity

Oleksiy Anulia enlisted in the military when Russia invaded Ukraine. Shortly after, Russian soldiers took him prisoner. The former prisoner of war recounted his story to the German weekly Der Spiegel. "At night, I prayed not to live to see the next day," he said.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both countries have conducted prisoner exchanges more than 50 times. As a result, over 3,000 Ukrainians have been freed, including Oleksiy Anulia. The thirty-year-old man is currently recovering from shoulder surgery in a trauma surgery ward.

For 10 months, he was a prisoner of war held in Russia. The man was emaciated, had lost many teeth, his legs were rotting, and several bones were broken. Anulia, a former kickboxing champion, lost significant muscle mass. Despite the passage of a year, he still struggles with health problems.

Oleksiy Anulia worked as a bodyguard for a Ukrainian oligarch. After the Russian invasion began, he enlisted in the military to defend the country. In early March, he was in Lukashivka, scouting for enemy troops. "Our mission was to protect the village so that civilians could continue to flee through the field road," he said in an interview with Der Spiegel.

Unfortunately, he was captured by four Russian soldiers. They took his knife, watch, and phone. "When their commander arrived, they ordered me to take off my coat. Underneath, they saw my wounds and tattered uniform – and realized I was a soldier, an enemy, a Ukrainian," Anulia recounts.

The soldiers took him to an old farm near the Belarus border. They tied him up, beat him, and raped him. "They came back the next morning. They tied my hands with a cable and hoisted me up to the ceiling. I hung there. Soon after, I could no longer feel my hands. They turned purple," the 30-year-old recalls.

He spent 40 days in detention in Kursk. Later, he was transferred to Penal Colony No. 1 in Donskoy near Tula. "The guards beat us with batons and stun guns. We were told we had to urinate in a canister, but we weren't allowed to empty it on Russian soil. Whoever filled the canister had to drink it," said Oleksiy Anulia in his interview with Der Spiegel.

The guards called the captured prisoners "fascists" and said, "We'll organize your own Auschwitz."

At night, I prayed not to live to see the next day. My heart was racing 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I was always expecting them to open the cell, beat, strangle, and humiliate me. Someone was always screaming in the corridor. When I looked at my fellow prisoners, I saw fear in their eyes," recalls Oleksiy Anulia.

The memories from the prison are shocking. On one occasion, he was forced to chew dirty socks for three hours. They pulled out his teeth for fun. Fourteen times, he sat in the electric chair.

Later, he was transferred to a penal cell. He survived on toothpaste from the trash and chewed toilet paper to fight hunger. In the yard, he collected earthworms. Once, he caught a rat.

Eventually, along with other prisoners of war, he was exchanged.

- I was free, but felt nothing. No joy, no anger. My family arrived the same day. My wife didn't believe I had been released until the last moment. My son, now five years old, didn't recognize me. My older daughter cried when she saw how emaciated I was," said the 30-year-old in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel.

Before being imprisoned, Oleksiy Anulia weighed 225 lbs. He lost 88 lbs. "My nose was broken, my jaw dislocated. I had a fractured collarbone and eight ribs. In some places my rotting legs turned black. When the camp doctors saw them, they put me in a wheelchair and took me to the hospital," he adds.

He was treated in Ukrainian hospitals for six months, and for four months in Israel and Latvia.