90 days in Russian captivity: Ukrainian boy survives "pure terror"

Created: 07/16/2022, 10:25 p.m

By: Kathrin Reikowski

During the Ukraine war, Putin's soldiers kidnapped Ukrainian citizens to Russia.

16-year-old Vlad was also in prison for 90 days.

Zaporizhia (Ukraine) -

Kyiv (Ukraine) - “There is no situation that cannot be solved.

I will get out of here,” 16-year-old Ukrainian Vlad Buryak is said to have repeated like a mantra while he was in Russian captivity.

He was released after 90 days - and reported to the US newspaper

about torture and ill-treatment by Russian soldiers.

Almost at the beginning of the escalated Ukraine conflict, at the end of April, Vlad was about to flee his hometown of Melitopol when he was captured by Vladimir Putin's soldiers.

According to Vlad and his father Oleg Buryak, who is a senior Ukrainian official, Vlad had been taken to a prison in Vasylivka, a town in the occupied part of Zaporizhia province in the south-east of the country.

What he experienced was "pure terror".

The

has not been able to independently verify the statements made by Vlad and his father, and Russia has repeatedly denied allegations of human rights violations in the Ukraine war.

But Ukrainian human rights organizations have confirmed that Vlad's reports correspond to what is known about the treatment in Russian captivity, the US newspaper said.

Ukraine-News: Vlad reports on his cellmate's attempted suicide in Russian captivity

They kept him in solitary confinement for the first few days, Vlad told The

.

But a few days later, a man was brought to his cell, who was then tortured in the next room.

He was repeatedly given electric shocks, among other things - Vlad had to listen to his screams.

One day the man who had a wife and children said to him: "I can't take it any longer.

I'd rather die."

"Please tell my story," he said to Vlad before he grabbed an aluminum can and slit his wrists.

Vlad held his hand as the man became more and more apathetic.

But then a guard came, had him treated medically and took him away - Vlad doesn't know what became of him.

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Ukraine-News: Vlad became part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine

After that, Vlad was again alone in the cell, reading, meditating, often having to clean the rooms with medical instruments where others were being tortured.

"I did this without emotion, keeping calm so the same thing wouldn't happen to me," he said.

"It felt like everything inside me had burned down." Once he saw a hanged man in the torture room and a Russian soldier taking untouched notes next to him.

Other men had needles driven under their fingernails.

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In the meantime, Vlad's father, Oleg Buryak, a government employee, has tried everything to get in touch with his son - in vain.

It was only after seven weeks that the 16-year-old was transferred to another facility, where he could talk to his father on the phone and take regular showers.

Neither of them knows why what happened then: at the beginning of July they found out that Vlad would be part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine: he has been with his father since July 4th.

Now Vlad is engaged in humanitarian aid in the Ukraine war.