Border guard from Zmiinyi (Snake) Island tells press about 9 months of captivity
The Russians captured Ukrainian garrison of the Zmiinyi (Snake) Island on the first day of a full-scale invasion.
Border guard Mykyta Zhupan spent 9 months in Russian captivity; he was released on 24 November 2022. The soldier's memories of this period were published on the website of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
"All the defenders of Zmiinyi Island were loaded by the occupiers onto the Shakhtyor tugboat and taken to Sevastopol on 24 February. They were all held there in the military commandant's barracks for two weeks," Mykyta said.
He adds that they were fed normally in Crimea: the food portions were similar to those for military personnel.
Then, the border guards and marines were flown to Kursk Oblast, and from there to Belgorod Oblast. They were kept in the pre-trial detention centre in Stary Oskol, Russia, for a month.
Then they were transferred to the correctional colony in Valuyki, where they were held for 4 months, and later they were brought to a correctional facility in Alexeyevka. The defender recalls that the food in these prisons was terrible.
"The quality of the food was just like it is in all prisons: potatoes, pasta, mushrooms. The portions were small," says the border guard.
Mykyta weighed 85 kg before his capture but lost 20 kg in captivity. According to him, the conditions in the colonies were tolerable: each prisoner had his own bed.
Our servicemen were recruited to work in sewing workshops in the fourth month of captivity. But there was no communication with other prisoners.
The wardens in the colonies were also different: some were relatively adequate and well-behaved, and sone zombified and aggressive.
Soldiers heard scraps of information from the radio with propaganda narratives, like on the Russia 24 TV channel. They freely lied about the scale of the captured territories.
In one of the prisons, where there was a TV, the boys saw on the map that Ukraine was holding on and putting up a decent fight back. The turning point was the liberation of Kharkiv Oblast, which the Russians called a "strategic retreat".
Photo: Ukrainian soldiers released from Russian captivity
All defenders from Zmiinyi (Snake) Island were kept together, but after some time, they were separated. It is currently unknown where the 10 border guards are.
Mykyta recalls that Russians in the colony were actively looking for the author of the phrase "Russian warship, go f*** yourself", and for the sake of fun, they arranged interrogations of prisoners of war from Zmiinyi (Snake) Island.
According to Mykyta, no one knew who said this phrase originally, because it was voiced from the rooms of the regular border post while the rest of the border guards were at their positions.
"There was no contact with [our] families all these months. No one knew how their relatives were doing. And it was very depressing. Prisoners were given permission to write letters home in the pre-trial detention centre in Stary Oskol. It was in March, and the letters arrived in Ukraine as early as in half a year," the border service said.
Mykyta and his comrades were not told anything about prisoner swap. They were taken away from work in the sewing shop, changed clothes and taken to another pre-trial detention centre. Then they put them on a plane, and then on a bus, but until the very last moment, there was no exact information about where they were being taken.
Representatives of the Coordination Headquarters and border guards were waiting for the captives in Zaporizhzhia. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of another 10 brothers after another "rotation" is still unknown.
Mykyta warns the relatives of other prisoners not to try to find connections with their relatives on their own, because the administration of the colony can transport prisoners to another colony, which will be a great stress.
"Each relocation results in a 'pryiomka', when the boys are beaten and mistreated. No handovers will go through, even if someone hands them over," the military officer notes.
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