Ukraine Azovstal: Released man says Azov fighters kept in inhumane conditions by Russia

Ukrainian fighters who surrendered aft weeks besieged heavy nether the Azovstal steelworks successful the larboard metropolis of Mariupol were kept successful inhumane conditions by Russia, a released combatant has told the BBC.

Lt Illia Samoilenko told the BBC that helium had been held successful Russia successful solitary confinement for 120 days and feared helium would ne'er instrumentality to Ukraine.

Russian forces, helium said, confiscated his prosthetic limb aft his capture.

The Azov Regiment combatant was released successful a captive swap past month.

Lt Samoilenko, who is 28, mislaid his close oculus and near limb aft ammunition exploded successful his manus portion helium was connected a Ukrainian subject ngo against Russian-backed separatists successful the eastbound Donbas region, successful 2018.

The archetypal happening helium bought erstwhile helium returned to Ukraine was a battalion of cigarettes, "to consciousness alive," helium said.

"I'm blessed to spot the radical who've been waiting for me, and the tears of joyousness successful their faces and their smiles".

In the archetypal planetary media interrogation by an Azov combatant since immoderate were released successful a major, and surprising, captive swap betwixt Russia and Ukraine past month, helium claimed immoderate of his chap fighters held separately had been tortured and denied capable aesculapian attraction and food.

"Obvious things" happened, Lt Samoilenko told maine successful Kyiv, wherever helium was recovering aft being freed. "Obvious things that radical who are captured are tortured by the Russians".

Russia denies torturing oregon mistreating prisoners of war, though Ukrainian officials accidental fighters person suffered maltreatment successful Russian captivity.

"I'm blessed to spot the radical who've been waiting for me," Lt Samoilenko said, "and the tears of joyousness successful their faces and their smiles".

Lt Samoilenko was among the hundreds of troops who were besieged by the Russian subject successful the underground tunnels and bunkers of the immense Azovstal steelworks, nether relentless bombing.

They refused to surrender until an bid came from Ukraine's apical subject commanders, which enactment an extremity to the conflict for the larboard metropolis of Mariupol, the deadliest and astir destructive successful this warfare truthful far.

The fighters near the metropolis carrying fewer idiosyncratic belongings, looking exhausted and with disposable wounds. Some were walking connected crutches. They were taken connected buses to Russian-controlled territory.

They were archetypal taken connected buses to Olenivka, a situation successful an country of Donetsk controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Lt Samoilenko said.

Days later, helium and others, mostly Azov leaders, were transferred to an undisclosed determination successful Russia. He says helium was kept unsocial successful a cell, helium recalled, wherever helium did push-ups and sit-ups and kept way of the clip by mentally counting the days.

"[But] I wasn't physically tortured," helium said, "so it was acold from the things radical suffered successful different places".

Those who were sent to different locations, helium alleged, faced conditions that were "very, precise poor", which worsened "with each caller week".

Some of those released past period told him they had been fixed constricted amounts of water, and that immoderate were malnourished.

In July, an detonation astatine Olenivka killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners. Russia said the tract was attacked by Ukraine, an allegation the Ukrainian authorities dismissed arsenic cynical, accusing Russia of trying to destruct grounds of torture and killing.

Russia, Lt Samoilenko said, ignored the rules of war. "They didn't attraction astir the Geneva [Conventions]. They don't attraction astir the lives of people." However, helium said helium could not stock much details yet.

"The Russians are besides watching these interviews," helium said. "When they spot our blessed faces, they're becoming much mad."

Days earlier the Azovstal surrender successful May, Lt Samoilenko led a quality league that was broadcast unrecorded from a bunker beneath the alloy works. For astir 2 hours, helium described the hopeless conditions for wounded fighters, and said helium and each the others saw themselves arsenic "dead men".

In Russia, the Azov Regiment to which helium belongs is vilified by galore due to the fact that of its archetypal roots arsenic a militia with links to the far-right, and it is utilized successful Russia propaganda to warrant President Vladimir Putin's baseless assertion that helium is "de-Nazifying" Ukraine. After their capture, immoderate Russians defended harsh situation sentences for the Azov fighters; others called for their execution.

But successful Ukraine, the fighters are symbols of the absorption against the Russian invasion, and celebrated connected billboards. "I don't deliberation personally that I americium a hero," Lt Samoilenko told me.

Their release, which saw 215 Ukrainians and 55 Russians exchanged, was seen arsenic a triumph for President Volodymyr Zelensky, and a root of nationalist jubilation. The woody happened amid embarrassing Russian setbacks connected the battlefield, and however it was brokered remains a mystery.

But the merchandise was bittersweet, Lt Samoilenko said, arsenic galore of his "comrades and conflict brothers" remained successful captivity, and "the Russians were inactive torturing them, keeping them successful inhumane conditions".

Living with his household successful Kyiv, his hometown, Lt Samoilenko is waiting for a caller prosthetic hand, and receiving intelligence counselling. Because soon, helium said, "we person to instrumentality to the battlefield".

Additional reporting by Anastasia Levchenko