“Russian surgeons from the so-called “Friends of Medicine of Donbas” group could have left this inscription”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
In the summer of 2025, a photo appeared in the Ukrainian and world media with the image of the inscription “Glory of Russia” and the propaganda symbol of the Russian army – the letter Z – burned on the stomach of a former Ukrainian prisoner.
In the investigation, the journalists recreated the chronology of events: in particular, in February 2024 in Donetsk region, Andrii Pereverzev, a soldier of the 79th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, was wounded and captured, representatives of the “DNR” group took him to occupied Donetsk. After being imprisoned in the basement, a soldier with serious injuries was brought to a medical facility, where he underwent the first operation. Pereverzev noticed the pro-Russian inscription on his stomach only a few days later, when he recovered a little, according to the investigation.
Andriy Pereverzev
“Schemy” established that this operation was carried out in the largest and most famous hospital in Donbas – the “Donetsk Clinical Territorial Medical Association” (abbreviated DOKTMO – ed.), which was headed by Tetyana Bakhteeva from the end of the 90s, and after the invasion of the Russian Federation in 2014 and until April 2024 – Nataliya Momot, Bakhteeva’s assistant as the People’s deputies In 2023, after the start of a full-scale invasion, the DOKTMO hospital was renamed the “Republican Clinical Hospital named after M.I. Kalinin”. Pereverzev himself heard this name from medical workers, and also remembered that after the main operation, he was transferred to the proctology department on the 6th floor of an 8-story building on the territory of the Donetsk hospital. Journalists found only one medical facility in occupied Donetsk, which has a building with 8 floors, with the necessary department on the sixth – in the mentioned DOKTMO.
In another hospital in Donetsk, where the soldier was later transferred, the nurses said among themselves that the main operation was performed by a Russian doctor. And, most likely, he was an abdominal surgeon by profession (operates on organs of the abdominal cavity – ed.) – this opinion was voiced in an interview with “Schemes” by a Ukrainian doctor who helps Pereverzev get rid of the burnt inscription. According to him, the inscription was made from the right side, from which the chief operating surgeon usually works, and with a special medical instrument. Also, some former doctors of DOKTMO, with whom journalists spoke, believe that Donetsk doctors are unlikely to do such an act.
Journalists found out that Russian doctors appeared in the Donetsk hospital already in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion – in particular, a group of two dozen Russian doctors called “Friends of Donbas Medicine” began working on a permanent basis. The initiator of its creation is Badma Bashankayev, a Moscow surgeon, deputy of “United Russia” from Kalmykia in the State Duma. Bashankaev is under sanctions both in Ukraine and in the world – in particular, the USA, EU, Great Britain. In Ukraine, a case was opened against him in 2022 – for encroachment on territorial integrity, suspicion was reported and he was wanted.
In his social networks, Bashankaev often publishes posts about “trips to Donbas” with the mention of two Krasnodar doctors from “Friends of Medicine of Donbas” – Yuriy Kuznetsov and Andriy Kryachko. In particular, on February 24, 2024, the day of Andriy Pereverzev’s operation, Bashankaev published two posts. One is in support of the so-called “SVO”, with old photos taken in the occupied territory of Donbas in the first weeks of 2022, noting that Donetsk has become “already native” to him. In the second post, also published on February 24, Bashankaev mentioned the Krasnodar doctors, reposted a photo from the trip from Yuri Kuznetsov’s page. On them, he and Kryachko unload a car with so-called “humanitarian aid” near the surgical building and pose in the office of Ivan Plahotnikov – at that time the deputy chief physician, and later the director of DOKTMO.
“Our brothers from “Friends of Donbas Medicine” are in Donetsk again on their weekend with humanitarian aid,” Bashankayev’s post says. Kryachko and Kuznetsov also note in their posts that they spent a “holiday weekend” in Donbas.
“They took humanitarian aid, helped fellow surgeons, supported the fighters on the front line and congratulated everyone on February 23,” Kuznetsov wrote.
Kryachko also reported: “Our colleague and comrade Yuri Serhiyevich Kuznetsov and I are spending this day at the front. We came to help military surgeons, soldiers and everyone who shares our position on world peace.”
The metadata of the video published by Yury Kuznetsov in the telegram indicates the date of its creation – it is February 24, 2024, two hours before publication.
That year, February 24 fell on a Saturday, a day off, journalists draw attention in the investigation. One of the photos of Kuznetsov and Kryachko, taken in the office of the then deputy director of the hospital, Ivan Plahotnikov, shows a marked calendar.
It appears to be Saturday, and probably February 24, 2024, the investigation said.
In addition, “Schemy” found other data that confirm that the doctors were at DOKTMO on the day when a derogatory inscription was left on the stomach of a Ukrainian prisoner of war.
According to the border crossing data of the surgeon Andrii Kryachk, which “Schemes” obtained with the help of sources with access to such information, on February 24, 2024, he entered the occupied territory of Ukraine. In addition, in the photo of surgeon Kuznetsov from this trip on that day, a UAZ military evacuation vehicle with the marking 300 can be seen – the occupiers usually transport the wounded in such vehicles. In a comment to journalists, Pereverzev confirmed that he was taken to the hospital that day in such a car.
“After all, February 24 is a symbolic date for Russia – as the day of a large-scale offensive on Ukrainian territories. So, most likely, the inscriptions with the military slogan “Glory of Russia” and the letter Z appeared on the body of the Ukrainian prisoner on this very day not by chance,” the journalists note in the investigation.
Andrii Kryachko and Badma Bashankayev did not answer the calls and messages of “Scheme”. Yuriy Kuznetsov initially denied that he was with Andrii Kryachko on February 24, 2024 at DOKTMO, then he said that they brought humanitarian aid, but did not operate: “The assistance to the surgeons was advisory. We did not operate on anyone.” When asked where exactly he was on February 24, Kuznetsov refused to say: “This is my identity hundred information”.
In an interview with Schema, Andriy Pereverzev noted that the entire Donetsk hospital knew about the mocking inscription, therefore, in the investigation, the journalists also mention the names of local doctors who could have been present during the operation of the soldier or headed the department of the Donetsk hospital where he was kept. These are, in particular, the heads of two surgical departments, urological, intensive care and proctological, as well as the management of DOKTMO.
In a conversation with journalists, Donetsk doctors Oleksandr Borota and Valentin Volkov, in whose department the Ukrainian military man was after the main operation, said that they “don’t know anything” about this case with the inscriptions. And DOKTMO nurse Tetyana Tregulova, identified by “Schemes”, who was the first to draw Pereverzev’s attention to the inscription on the body, said that she was only making a bandage, but “she cannot say anything about this, she does not have such information.” At the same time, she noted: “We had a meeting about this, and if it was not worth spreading about it at all, we were warned that, no matter what, doctors are out of politics.” And she added that it is true that Russian doctors are often brought in to work at the hospital, because “there are not enough hands.”
The Prosecutor General’s Office informed “Schems” that “criminal proceedings have been initiated on the fact of ill-treatment of Andrii Pereverzev” under Article 438 of the Criminal Code (violation of the laws and customs of war).