Anatoliy was the oldest man in Russian captivity at the age of 65. A native of Mariupol, he had worked at Azovstal as a bulldozer driver and later became a pastor. He and his wife had four children of their own and had adopted three more. When the full-scale Russian invasion began on 24 February 2022, Anatoliy thought that hostilities would end soon but despite that on 24 February he enrolled in a territorial defence unit and was issued with military equipment and weapons. He took the oath. As a pastor he had had to make the decision whether to take up arms. Later, in captivity, he was asked “How could it be that you are a pastor and took up arms?” and his answer was “This is between me and God. No one has the right to tell me what I can or cannot do. The invaders came to steal and kill and destroy and I came forward to defend my home.”

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Anatoliy remembers how he and other territorial defence soldiers and servicemen were brought to Azovstal and he began to help the Azov defenders. He was able to make use of his experience as a bulldozer driver because at night they were digging trenches. They had to smash their headlights with hammers so that the light would not betray their location: enemy drones were flying above them and the Russians were firing from the sea and from the air. On 14 March Anatoliy’s comrade-in-arms and Anatoliy himself came under mortar fire when a shell exploded under the bulldozer hood but luckily, Anatoliy’s body armour saved him. A shell fragment entered under his ribs and another shell wounded his hand. He was operated on in a hospital near the Neptune Swimming Pool. The swimming pool was where pregnant women and children took refuge and it was attacked by the Russians on 16 March. The day after the operation Anatoliy was lying in bed near the window, when a shell struck. The window glass blew out right onto Anatoliy and a nurse told him, “Whether you like it or not you have to escape into the basement.” Anatoliy had just been operated on and he was had stitches.  He was very weak and had practically no strength at all, and  cuts all over and yet he had to wrap himself into a blanket and, stepping barefoot on shards of glass, go down to the basement. After that Russian attack on all the wounded were transported to Azovstal.  Anatoliy was put in a hospital that was in a bunker room. There were constant Russian air raids and shelling and at one point the underground hospital ran out of food because its canteen was bombed. Everything was piled with debris and they had to dig out the food. They managed to get two cans of sardines for five people. Then they found oat flakes, moistened them in drops of water and then ate them. The Azov defenders were real heroes. They were searching for water to bring to the wounded. There were about 300 people in that bunker hospital. It was real hell. There was not enough water, food, light or oxygen. People used to think that in hell people would be fried on flames but no, it was truly hell in that bunker.

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On 15 May all the fighting stopped. For the first time Anatoliy was able to come out into the fresh air and he rejoiced seeing the green grass and breathing the air. The ruined buildings of the Azovstal plant were smouldering all around.  On 17 May Anatoliy and other servicemen left Azovstal. Actually it took them four days to leave. More than three thousand Azov defenders left Azovstal as prisoners of war. When they left, their main thought was that they were alive and they would see what happened next. The PoWs were put on buses and the Russians brought them to Olenivka. As soon as they arrived all their belongings were taken away from them.  Medical care was provided on a minimal basis. All the food they had there was a ladle of porridge, sauerkraut prison soup (shchi or cabbage soup: water and sauerkraut) with 1/16 of a loaf of bread. That was three meals a day. Dinner was at two o’clock in the morning. When you are hungry, thin and want to eat it’s very difficult. Leaving the prison canteen you’d feel hungry immediately. In order not to waste energy, Anatoliy would lie down and try to sleep. With up to 450 PoWs in a cell meant for 100 people there were not enough beds for everyone and some prisoners used to sleep underneath the beds. Any conversation would be about cooking, gastronomy, how they used to cook and for whom. As they say the tongue always returns to the sore tooth.  What was happening on the front they did not know.

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There were approximately 900 defenders from the Azov regiment and after a short period they were separated from the other prisoners and taken to a separate building. It was well known that the prisoners were beaten, particularly those who had tattoos of Nordic runes. In a way this was strange because some of the Russians also had tattoos of runes.

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Anatoliy spent three weeks in Olenivka. On 10 June the Russians read out a list of  names and ordered those people to pack their things. Anatoliy assumed that they would be taken for an exchange. However their transport passed the Donetsk city bypass and turned towards Makiivka.  And then they turned towards Vuhlehirsk and Debaltseve. Anatoliy thought that if they turned to the left from Debaltseve they would be on the road to Bakhmut and Slovyansk and they might be exchanged. But they drove straight ahead and Anatoliy understood that they were being taken to Russia. The PoWs were brought to the Sverdlovsk penal colony where they were welcomed by beatings with clubs. Anatoliy could see that the Russians were angry with the PoWs and scared of them. There were altogether 200 Ukrainian PoWs  and they were treated like pioneers: each prisoner received a quarter loaf of bread, then half a plate of porridge. Anatoliy thought this was a one-off but actually the meals there were good. Every day the PoWs had the same routine.  From time to time there were checks and interrogations.

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Once Anatoliy was asked: “What are you doing here, old man?”.  He answered: “I was defending my home.”

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​Anatoliy wore glasses. All Ukrainian PoWs were called “fascists” by the Russians and Anatoliy was called “the fascist intellectual.” This was a kind of praise and it kept him encouraged. All the prisoners had to do some work – some built beds in exchange for cigarettes. Those were the beds used for the prisoners. In the carpentry shop they also made one thousand coffins a month for Russian servicemen from wooden ammunition boxes.

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Anatoliy read the Bible and tried to encourage his fellow prisoners by saying that they had a special mission there.

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The prisoners were forced to listen to the Russian TV presenter and propagandist Olga Skabeeva and when they heard her ask guests on her programme: “How are things going there? Is there any victory?” they understood that there was nothing they could do. But when she said that Biden or some European leaders were visiting Ukraine or when she talked about the Ramstein meeting  the prisoners would say to each other that they were not alone, that 53 countries were supporting and helping Ukraine. So everything would be OK.

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On 7th of March 2023 there was another prisoner exchange and 130 Ukrainian defenders returned home, Anatoliy among them. Two weeks before the exchange the prisoners were brought to the Russian headquarters where they were told that they would be prepared for exchange. Anatoliy’s heart began beating rapidly but he felt sad that so many other PoWs would be staying in captivity. However, a week passed and there was no exchange and people started to lose hope. But then one evening the Russians came and said that at 6am in the morning they would be off! Shortly after that they were told: “It’s off”.  However later that evening the Russians took 28 men from Anatoliy’s barrack and 50 from another barrack, in total 78 men, and brought them to the bathhouse to wash. As a rule the prisoners would take a shower once a week, usually on Saturdays.  Fifty men would enter the bathhouse at the same time and there were ten shower heads for all of them. The trickle of water was very weak and they only had five minutes to wash themselves. All in all Anatoliy counted he’d had just forty baths in captivity.

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After the shower the Russians started to check the prisoners’ personal belongings. They threatened not to take anyone for exchange if they found a telephone or even a small piece of paper but fortunately Anatoliy managed to hide the telephone numbers of the wives whose men were left in captivity. Then the Russians tied the prisoners’ hands and blindfolded them with duct tape. After that they were put on a bus. It was a long drive, perhaps to Taganrog. Then they were put on a plane, hands tied up, one next to the other.  It was stifling and there was no toilet. They were not given water so that they would not need the toilet. The prisoners were taken to the border of Sumy region and that was where the exchange took place. Anatoliy could not speak because he had a lump in his throat. And tears in his eyes. Then he phoned his sons and told them that he was home.

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During his captivity Anatoliy did not see any human rights defenders or any representatives of the International Red Cross.

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After the exchange Anatoliy had hospital treatment and also had psychological therapy. When in captivity Anatoliy had longed for apples, fruits, vegetables and vitamins so he was happy to have these things at home.  Anatoliy visited his friends, the army chaplains, and made the decision to go to the front after his rehabilitation and help the servicemen. He was already enrolled in the Mariupol chaplain’s battalion.   Anatoliy is eager to be useful, he wants to be active and helpful.  He told his interviewer, “Otherwise I will get old very soon.”  

 

Source:  Suspilne (https://bit.ly/3Yjk4jV), 17 May 2023.