“I knew I πε could die, lose my health or become disabled – but I was ready to do it for Ukraine,” he told CBC News. The Ukrainian Marine Corps was part of a group of hundreds of soldiers holding a large Russian force that attacked the Illich ironworks in the northern part of the besieged city of Mariupol on April 10. Somehow, Stryzhko not only survived the tank explosion, which left him with horrific wounds, but also lived more than two weeks as a prisoner of war in Russia. Now that he is recovering in hospital in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, he told the story of his survival to our team on CBC News. Strizko spent two months in a Kiev hospital recovering from injuries after being covered in rubble after being hit in his building by a Russian tank. Among his injuries were a broken pelvis and a broken jaw. (Stephanie Jenzer / CBC) Russia says it has more than 6,400 Ukrainian soldiers in custody – a number that was released before Russian troops took control of the Donetsk city of Severodonetsk last week. The Ukrainian government has not said how many of its soldiers have been captured. The fierce battle may have led to the encirclement of even more Ukrainian divisions. Ukraine has demanded the release of its detainees in an exchange of detainees, but Reuters reports that a Russian investigative commission plans to try many of these men – including those who defended Mariupol – for “crimes against peace.” Human rights groups fear that the proceedings will result in spectacular trials.

Non-Ukrainian soldiers

Russia is also holding several non-Ukrainian soldiers hostage. Some are soldiers with dual Ukrainian citizenship, while others came to Ukraine to join a legion of foreign fighters. Britain’s Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Morocco’s Saaudun Brahim have been sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, a ruling handed down by the United Nations. Two former American soldiers who came to Ukraine to fight against the Russians are also now prisoners and there are fears that they will be sentenced to death. For Stryzhko, 25, the decisive moment came as he was on the third floor of the Mariupol building and spotted Russian troops when the tank broke through the Ukrainian lines and his huge gun fired at his position. “When a tank fires, there is no time between the shot and the landing of this weapon, as with the artillery,” he said from the hospital bed.
In vivid detail, he remembered the thoughts that went through his mind as the concrete floor collapsed beneath him and began to sink down, with rubble and debris all around him. On April 12, in Mariupol, Ukraine, he handed over seriously wounded marines to the Russians. Strizko was first transferred to Donbas and then to the Crimea before being exchanged with Russian prisoners in exchange. (Reuters) “It felt like my fall lasted two, three hours, but it actually lasted less than 10 seconds,” he said. “My brain did not close and I said to God: ‘It’s my death in Mariupol, am I dying?’” The former history teacher survived the fall but was covered in heavy concrete rubble, breaking so many bones that he says he left the count.
Among the worst injuries he suffered were a broken jaw and a broken pelvis.

He surrendered as a prisoner

Dragged from the wreckage by his colleagues, Stryzhko was taken to a temporary Ukrainian field hospital that was already full of up to 300 wounded soldiers.
Unable to treat them all, the commander finally signaled to the Russians waving a white flag that his wounded were being transported as prisoners, in the hope that they would receive medical attention. What followed for Stryzhko was a three-week odyssey with him being transported first to a hospital in the Russian-occupied Donbas and then airlifted to another Russian facility in Crimea. People pass in front of a heavily damaged apartment building in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on May 30. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters) He said that at no time did the Russians heal his wounds or try to alleviate his pain. “Every time I was moved, I was in huge pain. Instead of six people holding my legs, pelvis and head, two people were holding me by the legs and my head and body were hanging in a V shape,” he said. . he told CBC News. Finally, on April 28, 16 days after he was taken prisoner, he was among dozens of Ukrainian detainees led by Russians to a location in the southern Kherson region where the Ukrainians exchanged them for Russian prisoners.

“Nobody knows where”

Why they returned when so many others were left behind remains a mystery, he said, but he speculates that it may be because he was so badly injured that he was unlikely to return to the battlefield. “It was 450 [Ukrainian marines] with me. When we were ordered to leave Mariupol, only 41 people left. All others are dead or in Russian prisons. “Nobody knows where,” he said. Strizko said he wanted to tell his story to CBC News in the hope that the international community could push Russia to release its Ukrainian soldiers in captivity. Members of the Ukrainian armed forces, who were handed over to the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol during the Ukraine-Russia conflict, are sitting on a bus on arrival on the arrival of the pro-Russian army in the settlement of Olenivka in Donetsk Oblast, Donetsk Oblast. (Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters) “It is very important for the international community to help Ukraine put pressure on Russia and let the prisoners of war return to their families.” The Ukrainian government has said very little about the status of prisoners of war or what it is doing to restore them. In media comments last week, one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top security officials, Oleksiy Danilov, declined to discuss the exchange of detainees, calling it an “extremely delicate matter.” A Ukrainian governor said earlier in June that his country had managed to exchange 11 detainees with Russia since the invasion began on February 24. There were then reports of another exchange, although it was reported to involve Ukrainian citizens, not soldiers. A view shows the Illich steel and iron works in the southern port of Mariupol on April 15. (Pavel Klimov / Reuters) Aisling Reidy, who monitors issues related to detainees at the Human Rights Watch, said trying to understand what happened to Ukrainian detainees in Russia was frustrating and complicated. “We have stopped communicating with the Russian authorities because it is leading nowhere,” he said. There have been many reports of Ukrainian prisoners being tortured and ill-treated. What is clear, however, is that Russia has violated many of the usual conventions for the treatment of prisoners of war, including their trial on charges of involvement in the conflict, Rydy said. Stryzhko, 25, signed up to join the Ukrainian Marines a year before Russia invaded the country. (Submitted by Hlib Stryzhko) “It’s completely outrageous. These are fictitious accusations that have no basis in international law,” he told CBC News. “The prisoners are being arrested not to punish them for the war, but to prevent them from continuing to fight and they can be legally detained until the end of the war, when they will have to be repatriated.” He said Russia was also holding Ukrainian civilians from territories occupied by its forces and then tried to exchange them with Russian soldiers captured by Ukraine. He said this was essentially tantamount to “hostage-taking”. As for Stryzhko, the pins that held his broken pelvis have been removed but his mobility is limited. He is months away from being able to walk again and his days as a fighter are over – but there may still be a role he can play. “I dream of putting on my uniform and if the doctors allow it, I will be happy to be back in the Ukrainian Marine Corps. If not, then I would like to join any organization that will help bring our victory over the Russians closer.”