True War Crime

Oleksandr Savov survived Russian captivity and finally returned home in 2025. But captivity had already taken an enormous toll on his body. After years of inhumane treatment, Oleksandr came home severely weakened. He wanted to exercise again and rebuild his strength, but doctors warned him that his body was simply too fragile. Even the first moments with his family were shaped by what captivity ha...

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Maxym Levchenko was an athlete who practiced kickboxing . Years of training had conditioned his body to withstand physical punishment — something that unexpectedly helped him survive repeated beatings in Russian captivity. But even a trained body has its limits. By the end of his imprisonment, Maxym had lost a significant amount of weight . In this episode, Max...

Dmytro Melnyk served in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces and was captured in Mariupol in 2022. For the first three months, the Russians didn’t even know he was a soldier. They believed he was a civilian. And until the very end of his captivity, they never discovered that he had served in the Special Operations Forces . Inside the Russian prison system, Dmytro developed his own strategy for surv...

Arslan Annaiev spent more than two years in Russian captivity. In this episode, he describes in detail how Russian forces stormed the position he was defending — the battle that ended with his capture and the beginning of his journey through the Russian prison system. One day stands out above all others. During torture, Russian guards shocked Arslan with a stun gun so many times that he eventually...

During an interrogation in Russian captivity, Ihor Humeniak was stabbed in the back with a knife . He witnessed Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests being beaten because of their faith. He saw violence, humiliation, and many other abuses committed against prisoners. But there is something unexpected about the way Ihor tells his story today. He laughs. Not because what happened was funny. But after sur...

Before 2022, Ruslan Odaiskyi was a merchant ship captain who traveled the world. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he left that life behind and volunteered to defend his country. Captured by Russian forces, Ruslan endured brutal torture and a long journey through captivity. Yet inside the prison cell, he became a source of hope for the other prisoners. Drawing on memories of...

Andrii Stratiichuk is a former Ukrainian police officer who volunteered to defend Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Captured during combat, he was taken into the Russian prison system, where he discovered a disturbing reality: Russian criminals have legal rights. Ukrainian prisoners of war have virtually none. Because Andrii had a Trident tattoo —Ukraine's national emblem—he beca...

This is Episode 7 of True War Crime — a series of firsthand testimonies from people who survived Russian captivity. Our guest is Tom Dychok, an ethnic Pole who lived and worked in Poland for five years before Russia's full-scale invasion. After being captured, Tom endured relentless physical and psychological abuse. His captors shot him through both palms, tortured him, and tried to break his spir...

This is Episode 6 of True War Crime — a series of real stories from people who survived Russian captivity. Our guest, Yulii Pylypei , spent 2.5 years in Russian prisons . To survive psychologically, he held on to one simple dream: traveling with his wife once he was free. Despite being an ordinary soldier defending his country, Yulii says prison guards treated him worse than a convicted child rapi...

This is Episode 5 of True War Crime — a series of real stories from people who survived Russian captivity. When Yevhenii Malik was captured, an unexpected image came to his mind — a scene from Lethal Weapon , where Mel Gibson's character is suspended by his arms before being tortured. What seemed like a movie scene became reality. Yevhenii went through the hell of Russian prisons and torture chamb...

This is Episode 4 of True War Crime — a series of real stories from people who survived Russian captivity. Our guest is Serhii Akhmetov , a Ukrainian civilian who spent more than 3.5 years in Russian prisons . During all that time, he was never formally charged with any crime. No trial. No sentence. No legal justification for his imprisonment. Yet he remained in captivity for years. His story is a...

This is Episode 3 of True War Crime — real stories from people who survived Russian captivity. Our guest is Oleksandr Avramenko , a Ukrainian soldier known as one of the “Cyborgs” who defended Donetsk Airport in 2014–2015 . He spent 1,152 days in captivity , moving through 12 different prisons . In those conditions, survival often depended on small acts of humanity — other regular prisoners shared...

This is the first episode of True War Crime — a series of real stories from people who survived Russian captivity. Davyd Pradchenko spent 1,104 days in Russian prisons. He endured multiple “intake beatings,” lost over 40% of his body weight, and nearly lost his leg — yet he survived and is now telling his story. This is not a news report — it’s a firsthand account of what Russian captivity looks l...