I I have always loved fishing, whether in summer or winter. Now we were at the boo, the catch was bad. But that’s not so important. Fishing helps me think differently,” says Stas. One of the sailor from Mariupol’s fondest memories is how he went gurnard fishing with friends on the Sea of Azov. He experienced the big invasion of 2022 not far from Mariupol, where he was stationed with the 36th Marine Infantry Brigade.
Stas remembers very clearly the horrors of the last four years, most of which he spent in Russian captivity. It was only replaced last summer. Since then he has been operated on five times in Kyiv and Lviv. He is currently on rehab leave. But then he has to leave his wife, his son and his mother again. Stas is 28 years old, but what he has experienced is enough to last him several lifetimes.
Gregory Palij
was born in Chernihiv in 1978 and grew up in Kryvyi Rih. He later worked as a journalist and commentator in Donetsk and Kyiv. In 2015/16 and 2022 he reported for service in the army, and after demobilization he moved to Berlin with his family. Since then he has been commuting occasionally between Germany and Ukraine.
Torture with electric shocks, which guards cynically call “electrophoresis,” daily beatings until they lose consciousness – the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia cannot be compared with anything. The entire Russian state apparatus is geared towards breaking the will of the prisoners: “The people from the FSB (Russia’s domestic intelligence agency; d. Red.) tortured us so that we would take the blame for the shooting of civilians in Mariupol. When I said that I would not answer for their sins, the beating became even more brutal. Some of us couldn’t stand it and got twenty-eight years in prison,” Stas says.
“Once the Russians beat me up so much that one leg was completely hanging down, completely black and I couldn’t even lean on it. I thought in the hospital that it would be amputated, but little by little it recovered. In the cell we were forbidden to do anything except stand at attention all day. If anyone sat down or we talked to each other, the next fight would immediately begin,” remembers the 28-year-old.
At 25 years old, Stas from Mariupol has already experienced more than he can fit into a lifetime
Photo:
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Caught trying to escape from Mariupol
Stas was captured in mid-April 2022 while trying to to escape from the surrounded Mariupol. This was preceded by almost two months of fighting, the chronology of which remained clearly in his memory: how they stopped the first Russian column at 5 a.m. on February 22nd, shot down aircraft with Stinger missiles, broke out of the first encirclement near Talakivka under fire from Russian ships and tried to evacuate civilians.
He also remembers the losses of his comrades: “I watch films about Stalingrad: it was worse in Mariupol. We were prepared for urban battles, but Russia used everything against us, air force, fleet, the best units, and methodically destroyed the city,” he remembers. “In March, helicopters with ammunition were still flying to us, but the fighting was extreme and everything was lacking. I gave my last emergency ration package to a three-year-old boy named Roma, who hid in the basement of a school with his pregnant mother. Apparently they were able to escape later,” reports Stas.
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It would be better to die than to be captured by the Russians
Stas and his assault group tried to break through three times. The last attempt was on April 12, 2022. After leaving the city, they had to travel 120 kilometers. On the third day they got into a battle with Russian guards that lasted until the last cartridge. Even today, Stas isn’t sure whether he did the right thing when he didn’t keep the last bullet for himself. If he were ever faced with this choice again, he would not go back into prison, he says today.
After more than three hellish years in Russia, Stas plans to return to the military. As long as the war lasts and his comrades sit in Russian torture chambers, he sees no other option. During the rehabilitation period, he would like to spend as much time as possible with his son.
The boy is now 10 years old and has spent half of his life without a father. The fact that he was in captivity was deliberately kept secret from him. Instead, the child was told, “Dad is doing important work.”