Broken bodies, haunted minds: Ukraine’s freed POWs speak out

Over the summer, Russia and Ukraine completed a prisoner swap. Now these men, freed from years of brutal Russian detention, have returned home; however, they are no longer the men they once were, These Ukrainian POWs must deal with devastating injuries such as amputations, missing organs, loss of teeth, spinal injury, and lasting psychological trauma, according to interviews, human rights experts, and independent reporting.

In a report about how Ukrainian POWs are doing, The Kyiv Independent spoke to Vladyslav Zadorin, aged 26, a former Ukrainian marine captured on the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion while defending Snake Island. Zadorin told the news outlet that during his nearly two years spent as a Russian POW, he lost 60 kilograms (132 lbs), which accounted for half of his total body weight.

Zadorin explained that he was held in seven different facilities across Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories over those two years and that he survived starvation, beatings, electrocution, rape, and castration.

Broken bodies, haunted minds: Ukraine’s freed POWs speak out