‘We couldn't talk in the cell’: Ukrainian recounts harrowing prisoner of war experience

LVIV, Ukraine: More than 200 Ukrainian prisoners of war returned to their homeland in January, wrapped in the Ukraine flag and belting out their national anthem.

While Kyiv and Moscow carry out periodic prisoner swaps, January’s was the largest exchange since Russia's invasion.

The Ukrainians were bruised, battered but not broken.

Among them was 35-year-old medic Ostap Reshetnik, who has at his fingertips the dates and details surrounding his agonising experience.

"I was in captivity for 632 days. They held us from 20 April, 2022, to 31 Jan, 2023, in the Ryazan region in the town of Ryazhsk. Then, on 1 Feb, 2023, we were transported to the Republic of Mordovia," he told CNA.

Every day as a prisoner of war was long, painful and silent.

"We couldn't talk in the cell. We had a wake-up call at 6am and lights out at 10pm. From 6am to 10pm, we stood for 16 hours, not moving, hands behind our backs, head lowered," he recounted.

"If you moved or drank water without permission, they might open the cell door. They would either take out the person who did it or the whole cell."

RETURNING TO UKRAINE

Thoughts of his wife and two children kept Mr Reshetnik sane and he counted the days until one day, he was unexpectedly taken out from his cell and back to Ukraine. 

"Arriving at the border, they told us to take the bags off our heads quickly and cut the tape for those with tied hands. And when a man with a Ukrainian patch (flag) on his shoulder came in, then I believed that I was finally home," he said. 

While others were busy calling their families, he held back in disbelief. Eventually, he picked up the phone to call his wife, who had been waiting to hear from him for close to two years since finding out through a Russian Telegram channel that he had been taken prisoner.

But he was afraid to speak.

"He said hello and fell silent. I said, ‘Well, hello’. I said, ‘We are listening, finally you are calling’," his wife Reshetnik Olha recounted.

However, it was not all joy. His daughter was also shocked, saying that the man on the line was not her father. 

"When my husband started talking to her, she realised that it was her dad, she finally heard his voice proving he was in Ukraine," said Ms Olha. 

"Of course, he changed visually. He lost weight, which was obvious. But he remains our Ostap. He's here, he's with us, and the rest - it's all just nuances that aren't that important."

ADJUSTING TO LIFE AT HOME

While the former prisoner of war is now home and the ulcers he suffered from beatings are healing, he is not completely free from pain. 

"I scroll through my phone half the night and I have insomnia. It's there in my head, it comes back - moments when they mocked me, when they beat me," he said. 

Despite his suffering, Mr Reshetnik is willing to go back to the front line to reunite soldiers in captivity with their families. 

"We have to support each other. It's easier to get victory, to finally end all this, because it has lasted too long, it has mutilated people's lives," he said.