Nearly Killed In War, Ukraine Soldier's Journey To Russia Prison And Back
NDTV
Glib Stryzhko was captured in April and eventually taken to Russia before suddenly being put on a plane and sent towards home with others to be swapped for Russian prisoners.
Ukrainian soldier Glib Stryzhko's mother knew he'd fallen into Russian hands but it wasn't until her gravely wounded 25-year-old son made a secret phone call to her that she found out where he was."One of his guards took pity on him," she told AFP.
That small mercy, as well as details of his experience -- including a tormentor's knife and a painfully long kilometre -- offer a window into the dramatic but often obscured reality of war prisoner exchanges.
Nearly killed in intense fighting in the key port city of Mariupol, Stryzhko was captured in April and eventually taken to Russia before suddenly being put on a plane and sent towards home with others to be swapped for Russian prisoners.
"After we were loaded onto the bus waiting for us, the driver said, 'Guys, you can breathe. You are home now," Stryzhko said from his hospital bed in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
