He got back home only in June: civilian prisoner Oleh Kotov, who spent four years in Russian captivity, has died
It has emerged that Oleh Kotov, a 60-year-old retired police officer from Kharkiv Oblast who was abducted and unlawfully held by the Russians for four years, died in a Kyiv hospital in late July. He survived beatings and torture, and developed cancer while in captivity. He was brought back home in June.
Source: Austrian journalist Stefan Schocher via Die Welt; a translation by the The Book of Executioners project
Note: This story contains descriptions of traumatic events that may cause emotional distress.
Details: Kotov lived with his wife in the village of Kozacha Lopan in Kharkiv Oblast, which came under occupation immediately after the start of the Russian invasion. The Russians detained Kotov, who was then 56 years old, on 23 April 2022.
Kotov said that 15 soldiers approached him in the street and asked: "Are you Kotov?" The occupation forces then entered his home, took his electronic devices and drove him to the nearest railway station.
He was first questioned about his sons. Kotov said his younger son was studying in Western Europe. He chose not to tell the truth about his elder son, who worked in the police in Kharkiv, telling the Russians instead that he did casual work on a construction site.
"They knew I hadn't told them the truth," Kotov said, adding that the soldiers had documents containing personal information about his family.
He was then taken down to a basement, where he was brutally beaten and subjected to electric shock torture. Kotov did not reveal details of the abuse he endured, but admitted that it felt like his heart was burning through his chest.
The basement at the railway station was only the beginning – Kotov was transferred to a small hotel in the village of Hoptivka on the Russian border. The premises were being used as a camp for prisoners of war and civilian hostages.
"There was a large room. He was made to sit in a corner. Fifteen men stood around him. One sat down in front of him, took a folding knife from his pocket, opened it, and said: 'So then, shall I cut your ears off?'" the journalist recounted about the Ukrainian man.
Kotov did not lose his ear but was left with a scar. He says the Russians did not intend to kill him – they wanted to "crush his ribcage". Fourteen men beat him for around four hours until he lost consciousness, after which they subjected him to electric shocks.
Kotov endured the abuse for almost a month, during 18 days of which he was forbidden from using the toilet. After his time at the hotel, he had at least three broken ribs.
He was then taken to a tented camp in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, where he was subjected to beatings and interrogations. Guards repeatedly beat the hostages with 73-cm (29-inch) batons.
Other forms of torture were also used: gas cylinders were tied to the prisoners' legs and set alight, and hot metal was pressed to the soles of their feet.
After several changes of detention location, Kotov ended up in Russia's Stary Oskol. There he fell ill – at one point the occupation forces told him he would suffocate from "his pneumonia". However, Kotov overheard that he in fact had cancer.
Despite his serious illness, he received no treatment – only a few injections, the contents of which he was not told. From that point on, however, he was largely left in peace. His wife sent him letters every month, but he received only two of them.
In June 2026, he was handed a uniform and made to change into it. By then Kotov was so weak that he could barely do so without assistance.
The Ukrainian hostages were transported with bags over their heads – first by bus for an hour, then by plane, then by bus again. At one point, one of them suggested the journey might be leading to an exchange. The response was: "Never in your life, don't be a fool".
The Ukrainians were nonetheless brought back home. Journalist Stefan Schocher spoke with Kotov while he was in a Kyiv hospital. At the time, the retired officer was emaciated from exhaustion and had to be fed through a tube.
"I bear no resentment or bitterness, but [I want] this evil to be defeated," Kotov said.
His wife joked that they should "call the police" – meaning their eldest son from Kharkiv – but the younger son did not make it to his father in time.
A week after speaking with the journalist, Oleh Kotov died.
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