ATO veteran Serhii Shuliachenko spent a month and a half in captivity of the Russian occupiers. During this time, he survived torture with water, electric shock and beatings. The Russian military kidnapped a Ukrainian soldier from his own house.
Serhii lives in a village 20 kilometers from Izium. The Russian occupiers came to his home in March – on the 19th.
“I was just preparing dinner. I was going out, and they started breaking down the door,” the man recalls.
“You’re a Nazi,” he tells me, “you’re a Nazi!”. I say, “No, I’m ex-military”
After that, one of the occupiers ordered another to break Serhii’s hands, tie him up and take him to the cellar.
“They took me under the canopy and started shooting. They abused not only me. Many people were injured here,” Serhii says.
Serhii served twice. The first time was during Soviet times, the second time he stood up for the defense of Ukraine. In 2020, he was a driver in Donbas.
On February 24, Serhii sent his wife to a nearby village to be with the children, and he himself went to the Military Commissariat. The weapon was not issued to him that day. The man returned home and the invaders entered the village.
“I was in a hat, wrapped with tape. Then they started torturing me. They put a bucket, turned it over so that I wouldn’t choke. Then there was a stun gun, as I understood. Immediately after that, they started beating me”
The “break” between tortures was 10 minutes, Serhii says. The Russian occupiers tried to get him to know where he fought. They were looking for documents, for which they searched Serhiy’s entire house and cellar.
On the second day of torture, the occupiers took Serhii home to change into dry clothes and took him to another place of torture.
“The cap was put on my head again, they wrapped it with tape again. As long as I was in captivity, I was afraid to communicate with anyone. I was afraid that someone would set me up”
Serhii found out that he was taken to Izyum to be tortured. He does not know where exactly he was kept.
“Some time passed, we were taken somewhere. They put me down and told me to stand. I hear them walking away from me, and then I hear shots,” Serhii says.
“I tell them: “Guys, maybe it’s enough to mock, maybe you’ll shoot me right away? Why mock? I’m not young anymore”
The man was taken to the so-called executions several times. The man was held captive until May, then taken to the track.
“They said that on this side is the church, and on the other side is the road to the house. They asked if I would get there and they told me to go and not turn around. I was in pain, my back was severely injured,” he recalls.
“My head hurt a lot. It is simply impossible to convey. Someone who fought will understand. And someone who was a prisoner”
With a damaged arm and a bruised back, Serhii reached the village where his daughter lived. He walked for almost a day.
“There was a daughter, a son-in-law, a wife. When they saw me… they took care of me for a month,” says the man.
Serhii and his family stayed in this village until September, until the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated his native village of Vesele.
“I told my wife that ours have already come, you can go back”
“I didn’t think that there would be such a war. I had premonitions, but I didn’t think that Putin is such a bastard who has nothing human in him,” Serhii says.
“I found out later that many boys were beaten here. They were looking for who was here. If I knew who betrayed me, I would at least look him in the eye. People have no conscience,” the man adds.
The Russian occupiers stole all the documents from Serhii’s house. Now the man is engaged in their restoration. After that, he plans to undergo an examination by doctors, because his back, damaged by blows, has been hurting him for six months.
Source: Ukrainian Public TV
