When Bohdan walked past the Russian guards in Vasylivka on November 28 last year, the young Ukrainian thought he had made it. That he will soon be truly free and able to leave Russian captivity behind. The 22-year-old was abducted from his hometown in southeastern Zaporizhia Oblast in August and held captive for three months. On that November 28th he was supposed to be redeemed, he told the “Kyiv Independent“.
After three months in prison, Russian soldiers film Bohdan’s “release”.
The Russian soldiers told him they would release him and took him to a checkpoint. There the soldiers filmed the “release” of him and a fellow prisoner. Both were to be “deported” out of the Russian-held territories and then allowed to go to the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhia. But Bohdan and his fellow prisoner were never to arrive at the Ukrainian checkpoint.
Because: On the way to freedom, Bohdan and his fellow prisoner pass another Russian checkpoint. A Russian officer confronts them. “He said he couldn’t let us go as we saw their positions and if we returned to Zaporizhia we would join the Ukrainian army and kill his soldiers,” says Bohdan.
The officer gave them only one choice: death or imprisonment again: “Work and you will survive,” the young Ukrainian recalls the Russian’s words.
Ukrainian prisoner: “I wanted to jump on a mine myself so that it would all be over”
This is the beginning of Bodhan’s next ordeal under the Russian occupiers. The 22-year-old and other Ukrainian prisoners have been held near the checkpoint for almost four months. All Ukrainians supposedly released are misused as “workers” to dig trenches, build fences or do the housework for the Russian officers, he says.
Immediately, Bohdan and the other Ukrainian were given a shovel to work with the other prisoners for the Russian occupiers. The Ukrainian civilians toiled for months. From early in the morning until late at night they had to dig trenches for the Russians, set up positions or do housework.
Bohdan says some were even forced to survey the areas for mines before digging the trenches. “I wanted to jump on a mine myself to make it all over,” says Bohdan.
Higher-ranking Russian officers came by a few times to check on things. Then the Ukrainians had to hide, says Bohdan. He believes that the Russian authorities in the annexed areas didn’t know what the Russian military was really doing to the prisoners.
In the pit, Russian soldiers are holding “released” civilians – and forcing them to work
Bohdan and all the other Ukrainians are missing at the time. Many Ukrainians report that relatives disappeared after Russian soldiers filmed their supposed releases. According to Dmytro Orlov, former mayor of the occupied city of Enerhodar, few Ukrainians actually reached a Ukrainian checkpoint.
Many civilian prisoners were brought into the so-called pit by the Russian soldiers. The “pit” lies between the occupied towns of Vasylivka and Kamianske, some 60 kilometers south of the regional capital Zaporizhia, where around 200 civilians were being held, according to Orlov on February 17.
After four months of further imprisonment, Bohdan is finally released
The relatives of Bohdan and the other Ukrainian prisoners eventually went public after their loved ones remained missing months after their alleged release. This was probably the reason why Bohdan was finally released.
On March 14, Russian Interior Ministry officials took Bohdan and four other prisoners from his hometown to the occupied city of Melitopol. There they will be held and interrogated for another two days. According to Bohdan, they signed complaints against the Russian captain who had “kidnapped and illegally held them and threatened to kill them.”
He will then be finally released on March 16th. Almost four months after his actual “release”.
