1/
Carl-Oskar Bohlin
Swedish journalist:
On a makeshift patio right next to the harbor basin in Visby ( Sweden town at the island Gotland ), Vladyslav and Malik are sitting.
Neither I nor anyone else in Almedalen ( an speachplace during this week ) can possibly fully understand the extent of what they have been through and been subjected to. After an hour of conversation, I ask them if I can try to recount what they have told me and they answer in the affirmative.
- That is why we have come here, to let the outside world know what we have been through, they both say.
What they have come to Almedalen to tell about is their time as Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia. For two and two and a half years respectively, they were forced to endure what had made every circle in Dante's hell seem like a holiday trip. Malik begins.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin
Swedish journalist:
On a makeshift patio right next to the harbor basin in Visby ( Sweden town at the island Gotland ), Vladyslav and Malik are sitting.
Neither I nor anyone else in Almedalen ( an speachplace during this week ) can possibly fully understand the extent of what they have been through and been subjected to. After an hour of conversation, I ask them if I can try to recount what they have told me and they answer in the affirmative.
- That is why we have come here, to let the outside world know what we have been through, they both say.
What they have come to Almedalen to tell about is their time as Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia. For two and two and a half years respectively, they were forced to endure what had made every circle in Dante's hell seem like a holiday trip. Malik begins.
2/
- We were woken up at 6am every morning. The day started with us being beaten all over our bodies with sticks, then we were forced back into the cell. Eight to ten people in each cell, monitored by a camera.
From six in the morning we were then forced to stand in individual positions completely still until ten in the evening.
No one was allowed to move,
no one was allowed to talk,
no one was allowed to do anything.
If a single person moved, fell or somehow fell out of the frame, the door was opened and everyone in the cell was taken out to be subjected to collective punishment.
We were given electric shocks and beaten all over our bodies.
- When I ask how it is even physically possible to stand upright in exactly the same position day in and day out for all waking hours of the day, Malik replies;
- When you have experienced first being soaked and then attacked with an electric rod that is plugged into a wall socket, you will stand up until it is the last thing you do. Some died, some lost their composure.
Those who went crazy, as Malik puts it, disappeared. He continues;
- Russia will never send them back, they never want to show what happened to these people.
For two and a half years, this was every day of Malik's life.
- We were woken up at 6am every morning. The day started with us being beaten all over our bodies with sticks, then we were forced back into the cell. Eight to ten people in each cell, monitored by a camera.
From six in the morning we were then forced to stand in individual positions completely still until ten in the evening.
No one was allowed to move,
no one was allowed to talk,
no one was allowed to do anything.
If a single person moved, fell or somehow fell out of the frame, the door was opened and everyone in the cell was taken out to be subjected to collective punishment.
We were given electric shocks and beaten all over our bodies.
- When I ask how it is even physically possible to stand upright in exactly the same position day in and day out for all waking hours of the day, Malik replies;
- When you have experienced first being soaked and then attacked with an electric rod that is plugged into a wall socket, you will stand up until it is the last thing you do. Some died, some lost their composure.
Those who went crazy, as Malik puts it, disappeared. He continues;
- Russia will never send them back, they never want to show what happened to these people.
For two and a half years, this was every day of Malik's life.
3/
- They told us that Ukraine was gone, that the country had fallen and that we would never be allowed back.
New prisoners of war were carefully placed in other places so as not to be able to provide updates on developments on the ground in Ukraine.
But one day, a recently captured Ukrainian soldier was accidentally placed in their cell, who could tell us how things really were. Free Ukraine still existed to a very large extent and Russia had been pushed back at the beginning of the war.
It gave them the strength to continue to endure, concludes Malik.
Vladyslav was placed in another prison and in another hell. Here, the prisoners were given penal servitude, but almost nothing to eat.
- We ate mice that we could find and catch, we ate soap, we ate everything we could get our hands on.
I ask if they didn't get any food.
- Yes, sometimes, but in small rations and food that was prepared in a way that was intended to make it almost inedible. We were given bread that was mixed with soil.
They beat us daily, they sent their guard dogs after us, who bit us. Sometimes they forced us into a small drying cabinet.
5 people at a time were packed tightly into a drying cabinet, then they closed the door and turned up the heat until we almost lost consciousness.
It went on like this, day after day, Vladyslav says.
- They told us that Ukraine was gone, that the country had fallen and that we would never be allowed back.
New prisoners of war were carefully placed in other places so as not to be able to provide updates on developments on the ground in Ukraine.
But one day, a recently captured Ukrainian soldier was accidentally placed in their cell, who could tell us how things really were. Free Ukraine still existed to a very large extent and Russia had been pushed back at the beginning of the war.
It gave them the strength to continue to endure, concludes Malik.
Vladyslav was placed in another prison and in another hell. Here, the prisoners were given penal servitude, but almost nothing to eat.
- We ate mice that we could find and catch, we ate soap, we ate everything we could get our hands on.
I ask if they didn't get any food.
- Yes, sometimes, but in small rations and food that was prepared in a way that was intended to make it almost inedible. We were given bread that was mixed with soil.
They beat us daily, they sent their guard dogs after us, who bit us. Sometimes they forced us into a small drying cabinet.
5 people at a time were packed tightly into a drying cabinet, then they closed the door and turned up the heat until we almost lost consciousness.
It went on like this, day after day, Vladyslav says.
4/4
When he was exchanged two years later, he had lost 60 kilos in weight and half of the fellow prisoners who were returned with him had contracted tuberculosis.
We other visitors to Almedalen will never be able to fully comprehend what these two of thousands of young men with the same experiences have experienced in Russia.
But we all have a duty not to turn a blind eye to what has happened and to understand what is at stake.
This is the way in which Russia treats what is usually described as a brotherly people.
This is the way in which Russia treats prisoners of war who on paper are protected by international law.
At the same time, in what sometimes feels like a parallel universe that we could call the Swedish administrative apparatus, we are still scratching our heads over questions concerning which officials in the personnel of various authorities should, or should not, have combatant status according to international law.
I do not say this as an argument that international law is unimportant, quite the opposite, but it is obvious that our categorizations would have very little bearing on what assessments Russia makes in this regard since they clearly blatantly ignore the entire concept of international law.
Rather, we need to focus on strengthening our capabilities in total defense, because deterrence is what protects us against this insane barbarity.
We do not seek conflict, but we will never accept being subjected to pressure or acts of war. We need to continue to support Ukraine, both militarily and civilianly.
We need to help those who have been subjected to these horrors and we must understand that what we are currently building in Sweden is aimed at protecting us against this type of incomprehensible abuse.
Thank you to the Ukrainian Hub in Almedalen for arranging this meeting and thank you to Malik and Vladyslav for summoning the strength to tell the world.
The exhibition "Do not forget" in the Ukrainian hub in Almedalen shows the brutal truth, including images of Ukrainians subjected to Russian ruthless torture.
Link:
facebook.com/share/1XzvXw9x…
Carl-Oskar Bohlin
👇✍️✍️
When he was exchanged two years later, he had lost 60 kilos in weight and half of the fellow prisoners who were returned with him had contracted tuberculosis.
We other visitors to Almedalen will never be able to fully comprehend what these two of thousands of young men with the same experiences have experienced in Russia.
But we all have a duty not to turn a blind eye to what has happened and to understand what is at stake.
This is the way in which Russia treats what is usually described as a brotherly people.
This is the way in which Russia treats prisoners of war who on paper are protected by international law.
At the same time, in what sometimes feels like a parallel universe that we could call the Swedish administrative apparatus, we are still scratching our heads over questions concerning which officials in the personnel of various authorities should, or should not, have combatant status according to international law.
I do not say this as an argument that international law is unimportant, quite the opposite, but it is obvious that our categorizations would have very little bearing on what assessments Russia makes in this regard since they clearly blatantly ignore the entire concept of international law.
Rather, we need to focus on strengthening our capabilities in total defense, because deterrence is what protects us against this insane barbarity.
We do not seek conflict, but we will never accept being subjected to pressure or acts of war. We need to continue to support Ukraine, both militarily and civilianly.
We need to help those who have been subjected to these horrors and we must understand that what we are currently building in Sweden is aimed at protecting us against this type of incomprehensible abuse.
Thank you to the Ukrainian Hub in Almedalen for arranging this meeting and thank you to Malik and Vladyslav for summoning the strength to tell the world.
The exhibition "Do not forget" in the Ukrainian hub in Almedalen shows the brutal truth, including images of Ukrainians subjected to Russian ruthless torture.
Link:
facebook.com/share/1XzvXw9x…
Carl-Oskar Bohlin
👇✍️✍️
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