They beat him with batons and fists, striking pain points before and after every meal. The guards called it a “red corridor.”
This is how Russian jailers tortured Serhii Hryhoriev, a Ukrainian soldier held in Russian captivity, Slidstvo Info reports. 1/
He was 59 years old. Hryhoriev joined the war in 2019.
He was captured by Russian forces in Mariupol at the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. 2/
He served as a driver in Ukraine’s 209th Separate Anti-Tank Battalion. In January 2022, he returned to the front.
His contract was due to expire in days — then the full-scale war began. 3/
After Russian strikes destroyed his unit’s vehicles near Mariupol, Hryhoriev entered the city with Ukrainian marines.
He stayed at the Illich Steel Plant.
In April 2022, he was taken prisoner. 4/
In August 2022, his family received a letter from captivity: “I am alive and healthy. Everything will be fine.”
His wife and daughters later tattooed these words on their wrists — a promise written from prison. 5/
In 2023, a video from captivity surfaced.
Hryhoriev wore a prison uniform. He was emaciated and exhausted.
He said: “I hope I will still see you.”
His family noticed he could barely see — and had lost his teeth. 6/
After Olenivka and Taganrog, Hryhoriev was transferred to Penal Colony No. 12 in Russia.
Another Ukrainian POW held there later testified about what happened next. 7/
Guards brought in from other Russian regions beat prisoners in so-called “red corridors” — every time they walked to and from the mess hall.
The blows were deliberate, forceful, and aimed at pain points. 8/
Within weeks, Hryhoriev’s condition collapsed.
Heart pain. Shortness of breath. He could barely climb stairs.
A captured combat medic was nearby, but could not save him. In mid-May 2023, Serhii Hryhoriev died. 9/
Russia listed the cause of death as “stroke.”
Ukrainian forensic experts found: ruptured spleen, massive internal bleeding.
His body was returned to Ukraine in 2024 and buried in Pyriatyn, Poltava region. 10X
Source: slidstvo.info/articles/vin-p…
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