A fighter from Snake Island told about 9 months of captivity

The Russians captured military personnel from Snake Island on the first day of a full-scale invasion.

Border guard Mykyta Zhupan spent 9 months in Russian captivity – he was released on November 24, 2022. The soldier’s memories of this period were published on the website of the State Border Service.

“On February 24, all the defenders of Zmiiny Island were loaded by the occupiers onto the tugboat “Shakhtar” and taken to Sevastopol. They were all held there in the military commandant’s barracks for two weeks.”– said Nikita.

He adds that they were fed normally in Crimea: the portions of food were like those for military personnel.

Photo: State Border Service

Then the border guards and marines were flown to Kursk, and from there to the Belgorod region. They were kept in the SIZO in Stary Oskol for a month.

Then they were transferred to the correctional colony in Valuyki, where they were held for 4 months, and later they were transferred to the correctional colony in Alekseevka. The defense attorney recalls that in the institutions where the freedom of eating was restricted, it was terrible.

“The quality of the food is frankly prison-like – potatoes, pasta, mushrooms. Portions were small“, says the border guard.

Before his capture, Nikita weighed 85 kg, and in captivity he lost 20 kg. According to him, the conditions in the colonies were tolerable: each prisoner had his own bed.

In the fourth month of captivity, our servicemen were recruited to work in sewing workshops. But there was no communication with other prisoners.

The wardens in the colonies were also different – both relatively adequate and well-behaved, and zombie-like and aggressive.

Soldiers heard scraps of information from the radio with propaganda narratives, like on the “Rosiya24” TV channel. They openly lied about the scale of the captured territories.

In the colony, where there was a TV, the boys saw on the map that Ukraine was holding on and putting up a decent fight back. The turning point was the liberation of Kharkiv Oblast, which the Russians called a “strategic retreat.”

Ukrainian fighters released from captivity

All defenders from Zmiiny Island were kept together, but after some time they were separated. The whereabouts of 10 border guards is currently unknown.

Nikita recalls that in the colony they were actively looking for the author of the phrase “Russian military ship, go to …”, and for the sake of fun they arranged interrogations of prisoners of war from Zmiiny Island.

According to Nikita, no one knew the author of this phrase, because it was voiced from the premises of the regular border post while the rest of the border guards were at their positions.

“There was no contact with relatives all these months. No one knew how the relatives were doing. And it was very depressing. In the SIZO in Stary Oskol, prisoners were given permission to write letters home. It was in March, and the letters arrived in Ukraine half a year later.”the border service says.

Nothing was said about the exchange to Nikita and his brothers. They were taken away from work in the sewing shop, changed clothes and taken to another pre-trial detention center. Then they put them on a plane, and there – on a bus, but until the last there was no exact information about where they were being taken.

Representatives of the Coordination Headquarters and border guards were waiting for the boys in Zaporizhzhia. Unfortunately, the whereabouts of another 10 brothers after another “rotation” is unknown.

Nikita warns the relatives of other prisoners not to try to find meetings with their relatives on their own.

Because the administration of the colony can transport prisoners to another colony, which will be a great stress.

“Every move is a “reception” when boys are beaten and mistreated. No transmissions will go through, even if someone transmits them“, says the soldier.

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