““This is a concentration camp.” The story of a marine who remained silent for a year in Russian captivity – BBC Ukraine October 18, 11:21 Share: Ukrainian marine Yuriy Gulchuk, after being silent in captivity for a year and being released, told the BBC his story (Photo: BBC) Marine Yuriy Gulchuk spent two and a half years in captivity years Of them, he remained silent for almost half of the time. His story was told by BBC journalist Zhanna Bezpyatchuk. NV publishes material”, — write on: ua.news
“This is a concentration camp.” The story of a marine who remained silent for a year in Russian captivity – BBC Ukraine Ukrainian marine Yuriy Gulchuk, after remaining silent in captivity for a year and being released, told the BBC his story (Photo: BBC)
Marine Yuriy Gulchuk spent two and a half years in captivity. Of them, he remained silent for almost half of the time. His story was told by BBC journalist Zhanna Bezpyatchuk. NV publishes the material under the rights of information cooperation.
Yury Gulchuk silently looked at the delicious and nutritious food that was brought to him on a tray in the ward of the Oleksandriv Hospital in Kyiv. The 22-year-old marine could not eat it. He did not have the strength to raise his hand and take the spoon. He hardly spoke either.
This continued for several days after his release from captivity on September 14, 2024. At that time, Ukraine managed to return 152 of its citizens within the framework of two exchanges in a row.
“When I found out how much time, effort, work and how many people it took to free me from captivity, I felt uncomfortable,” he later said about the release in an interview with the Ukrainian Air Force.
Footage of Yuriy in the arms of his mother, Milana Kompaniets, immediately after his return to Ukraine was covered by almost all Ukrainian and many foreign media. At that moment, he was practically unable to communicate.
His first words to his mother, which she passed on, were: “Why are people so cruel to each other? Why so much pain? Why so many lies?”
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Silence in Russian captivity
It took Yuri a few days to believe that he was really home, to start eating on his own and talking to people again.
“Even when I was already in the intensive care unit of the Oleksandriv hospital and talked to my father and mother, I still couldn’t believe that I was home,” the marine recalls.
He remained silent for almost a year in captivity: “I sank into silence little by little. It wasn’t like I woke up and decided to be quiet. Like, talked to people.”
““I don’t consider myself an overly protesting person,” says the guy. “I was silent because it was necessary, it was not possible otherwise.” His silence became a certain psychological and physical protection.
It was not so easy to speak freely. “To do this, I had to make an effort. And it’s not even about the fact that you need to use the vocal cords. In order to speak loudly, or even more so to sing, shout, you need to strain some mental muscle that has weakened. It needs to be revived,” he told BBC Ukraine.
“I just wanted to live. I was just lucky to survive. But not everyone is so lucky,” he says.
In total, the boy spent two and a half years in captivity: from April 12, 2022 to September 13, 2024.
During this time, he was staged from one prison to another several times. He was held in such places of captivity as Olenivska Colony, Taganrozke SIZO-2 and a prison in Mordovia.
An unforgettable breakfast
Yuriy Gulchuk emphasizes that he does not consider himself “iron marine”.
He began his term of service in the logistics battalion of the 36th brigade of the Navy in December 2021.
Before that, he studied Chinese philology in Kyiv for two years, but decided to interrupt his studies and join the army. Two weeks before the large-scale Russian invasion, the boy signed a contract with the Armed Forces.
On February 24, I met at the KP at the waste processing plant in Mariupol. “We woke up and heard something banging. On the first floor, we had broken glass in the windows. It was the second line of defense. We looked at each other and decided that something had exploded somewhere on the front line. Then they had breakfast “macaroni”.
Only a few hours after this breakfast, Yuri learned that a large-scale war had begun. “I thought that one day it will be written in the books that everything started in Mariupol on February 24. And here I am in Mariupol. And today is February 24. I had no idea what awaited me then.”
On February 26-27, his platoon was transferred from the waste processing plant to the territory of JSC “Azovobshemash”. There they moved from bunker to bunker. There he was captured by the Russian military.
Who was beaten in prison
“The treatment of us in captivity depended on who was on shift in the prison. There were such overseers, that is, vertukhais, who beat all the prisoners,” says Yuriy Gulchak.
“Other guards took everyone out of the cell and into the corridor and asked who was over 50, sick or injured. They were taken aside from the rest and were not beaten. I consider it a manifestation of a certain humanity.”
Accordingly, these supervisors beat the young and surviving soldier.
“This is a concentration camp. Of course, we were beaten. We were also forced to stand after eating and until the break-in.”
In October 2024, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that Russia systematically tortures Ukrainian prisoners.
His report stated that in Russian prisons they are subjected to electric shocks, beatings, sexual assaults, sleep deprivation, prolonged positions in uncomfortable positions, humiliation and threats of violence.
These data were confirmed by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission.
According to her data, 95% of Ukrainian prisoners who managed to be exchanged were tortured in Russian captivity. The head of the mission, Daniela Bell, admitted that it was “the worst she has seen in the last 20 years of visiting prisoners on behalf of the UN”.
In September 2023, the UN rapporteur from the rtur Alice Jill Edwards.
The Media Initiative on Human Rights established 21 cases of death of Ukrainians in Russian captivity. These people died between February 2022 and November 2023. Among the probable causes of death were beatings during “receptions”, i.e. registration, and torture by electric current.
Ukraine is investigating the mass shootings of its soldiers during their capture by the Russian army.
Russia did not comment on the UN report and statements about the torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
In June of this year, Vladimir Putin announced that 6,465 Ukrainian military personnel were in Russian captivity. He did not comment on the statements of the UN and human rights defenders about the policy of the Russian Federation on the torture of prisoners.
Dreams in captivity
He had no contact with his relatives for two and a half years. He did not receive letters from them. I saw that letters were brought to someone from his cell. Those letters arrived late and were unsealed.
The letter he wrote and sent from a Russian prison to his mother, she received after her son’s return from captivity.
Inspection commissions came several times to the cell of the captured Ukrainian marine. These people did not introduce themselves. “They asked if everything was fine. We answered in unison that everything was fine. They left the cell and our day went on as usual.”
In captivity, Yury Gulchuk lost a couple of tens of kilograms, which is typical for many Ukrainian prisoners of war.
According to Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainians released from captivity in the Russian Federation are often in a difficult situation. They lose an average of 20-25 kilograms of weight.
The boy says that he has set himself the task of surviving and living to release. “And at the same time, if possible, remain intact. I also ran positive images through my head. No matter what happens around you, no one can make you think in a certain way,” he says about how he endured more than two years in Russian prisons.
He was also helped by dreams about his parents, memories of his childhood and plans for the future. This was his inner life, when outwardly he remained silent.
“In captivity, I often saw relatives in my dreams. He remembered how he went to various restaurants with his parents, how he traveled. I scrolled through conversations with interesting people in my head. I planned what I would do after returning from captivity. For example, what movie will I go to, what music will I listen to, what will I eat.”
Belarusian dry goods on the way home
When Yuriy Gulchuk was taken to the exchange, he could not believe for a long time that it was really so: that it was not a dream and not his dreams.
“The Russians have such entertainment, such a psychological game, that when transporting a prisoner from one place to another, they say that it is an exchange. A person is getting ready to see his relatives, but instead he is brought to a new prison and let in for “reception”, i.e. beaten before registration,” explains the marine.
When the escort congratulated them that they were going on an exchange, the other Ukrainian soldiers did not believe it either. “One of them replied that he was already “going on an exchange for the seventh time”. After the “fourth exchange” at the “reception” his kneecap was broken.”
On that day, Yuriy Gulchuk was preparing himself for a new pain, not for a meeting with his mother: “I experienced several such “receptions” on my own. I was preparing myself for another “reception”. I understood that I would be in real pain in an hour or two, in a day or two.”
They were taken through Belarus, where Ukrainian prisoners were given dry rations with chocolate, bread, cookies, and tomatoes.
“It was surreal. What is Belarus like? What dry rations? It sounded as if aliens would fly in and give everyone a kilogram of candy. It seemed that it was a cruel joke,” Yuriy Gulchuk describes his feelings at that moment.
Shortly before this food was given out, they were allowed to remove the bags from their heads.
Yuriy for the first time admitted the idea that it was indeed an exchange, when these bags were taken from them and put together.
And then they gave me cookies and chocolates.
And even at this moment doubts prevailed. “The more you hope for yourself, the harder it is to accept reality when it’s not what you imagined.”
And when the boy saw his mother and dozens of smiling people in his native land, he was still silent. And he needed to learn to smile again.
Just go to the store
In captivity, Yuriy made a list of what he had to do after his release.
“But these plans are now falling apart. I’m just walking down the street, I see a store sign, I’m curious – I go in. It all happens spontaneously.”
Yuriy would also like to watch all the famous films released in the last two and a half years. And listen to a lot of new music.
And ride an electric scooter.
And also, perhaps, to return to studying the Chinese language. The former teacher has already offered him to resume classes.
He wants to make up for the time and opportunities that Russian captivity and the war took away from him.
“I tell myself that my time in captivity was not a waste for me, that I got something for myself from this experience. Maybe this is self-consolation. In fact, I’m trying to get rid of the feeling of wasted time.”
As of September 2024, according to the Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine managed to return more than 3,650 of its citizens from captivity. We are talking about both military and civilians.
According to the estimates of the Media Initiative for Human Rights, as of May 2024, more than ten thousand Ukrainian soldiers could be in Russian captivity.
In addition to the military, according to Dmytro Lubinets, Russia can hold about 28,000 Ukrainian civilians in captivity. Many of them were arrested in the occupied territories.
You can watch a video interview with Yuriy Gulchuk on the BBC News Ukraine YouTube channel.
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