Photos showing the stark physical transformation of a Ukrainian soldier after three years in Russian captivity have been circulating online, documenting the inhumane conditions faced by Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The comparative images of Oleksandr Strafun, a reserve officer who defended Mariupol, were published by volunteer Olena Zolotariova from the NGO “Power of People.” The photos show Oleksandr with his wife Olena before and after his captivity period. Both of them consented to have their photos appear online. This is how Russia’s full-scale aggression that began in February 2022 changed their lives forever. 

Oleksandr and Olena had lived for each other before the full-scale war. Though he had not participated in the fighting in eastern Ukraine since 2014 and worked at the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, he felt compelled to serve when Russia invaded explicitly.

On 21 February 2022, Oleksandr contacted military recruitment offices to offer assistance. “He always knew that if something suddenly started, he had no right to stay home,” Olena recalled, according to her interview with 0629 news outlet about Mariupol. When he suggested she evacuate, she refused, citing her two cats and the need to help his parents.

Oleksandr enlisted in territorial defense forces on 25 February, finding the recruitment office nearly empty except for a guard directing volunteers to territorial defense units. The following morning, 26 February, he called from territorial defense headquarters with news that would define their separation:

“He said he wouldn’t return home anymore. I asked, when should I expect you? And he answered: ‘I’ll return after victory.'”

Their final direct communication occurred on 1 March 2022, when Oleksandr requested personal items including soap and socks. Olena was unable to deliver these supplies before contact ceased entirely.

During the siege, Olena remained in blockaded Mariupol despite knowing about the garrison’s order to surrender and the final stand of Ukrainian soldiers at Azovstal. She suspected Oleksandr might not answer calls from unfamiliar numbers, while her own phone had been stolen by Kadyrov forces.

After reaching safety, Olena connected with families of other prisoners through support networks. Through these contacts, she learned Oleksandr had been seen at the notorious Olenivka detention facility in occupied Donetsk Oblast and managed to pass along her new phone number through another prisoner’s wife.

On the night of 29 July 2022, an explosion struck a barracks at the Olenivka prison colony, killing about 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), mostly defenders of Mariupol including members of the Azov Regiment, and injuring over 70 others.

Both Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the attack: Russia claimed Ukraine used a HIMARS missile to strike the prison, while Ukraine accused Russian forces of deliberately shelling the facility to cover up torture and executions of POWs.

The day before the documented attack, Oleksandr called Olena and described unusual activity at the facility.

“He said something strange was happening in the colony, some constant movements. Some people were being taken away, others relocated. He thought, maybe this is already an exchange?” Olena recounted.

She went to sleep hopeful but woke up to the news of the explosion and casualties, not knowing if her husband remained alive. Oleksandr survived because he had been transferred to another facility prior to the incident.

He managed to call her, promising an exchange was coming and telling her to wait. That conversation marked the beginning of an extended silence lasting for years.

In 2025, Oleksandr was returned home to Ukraine in one of the prisoner exchanges that resulted from Istanbul peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations, that, however, failed to reach a ceasefire agreement.

All released soldiers undergo rehabilitation, including urgent medical care and psychological support. Ukrainian authorities also provide financial compensation for their time in captivity, as part of the reintegration process after often prolonged and brutal detention in Russia.

Ukrainian medical specialists have started procedures to remove a “Glory to Russia” inscription from the body of a serviceman who recently returned from Russian captivity, according to reports from medical professionals involved in the case.

The treatment is being conducted under the “Unburnt” national program, which provides free external rehabilitation and treatment for deformational, post-military injuries, burns and scars for people affected by the war. Maksym Turkevych, director of the program, confirmed the medical intervention alongside dermatologist Oleksandr Turkevych.

According to Oleksandr Turkevych, the Ukrainian serviceman was captured more than 15 months ago following combat injuries. The medical professional explained that when the soldier regained consciousness after surgery while in captivity, he discovered the inscription had been left by the operating surgeon.

The removal process began with an injection of polynucleotide, a substance commonly used in cosmetic and medical procedures to stimulate cellular and tissue regeneration. The treatment represents the initial phase of what doctors expect to be a multi-stage process.

Maksym Turkevych indicated that medical teams are preparing the scarred tissue for more intensive interventions. He projected that within several months, only minimal traces of the inscription would remain visible.

The case came to public attention when Clash Report initially published photographs of the released Ukrainian fighter. The images showed the “Glory to Russia” text visible on the man’s body alongside battle scars, with reports indicating the marking was made by occupying forces during his captivity.

Andrii Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, verified the authenticity of the photographs. Yusov explained that a Ukrainian medical professional took the images during a routine examination of the freed defender.

The family of 59-year-old Ukrainian soldier Serhii Hryhoriev spent months holding on to hope for his safe return. But instead of a reunion, they were faced with heartbreak when his body was returned from Russian custody. His death, now among over 200 confirmed fatalities of Ukrainian prisoners of war, has become part of a growing body of evidence cited by human rights monitors who warn of systematic abuse, medical neglect, and torture in Russian detention, AP reports. 

Serhii Hryhoriev worked as an office worker at a high school in central Ukraine. He enlisted in the military in 2019, and by early 2022 was deployed to Mariupol. On 10 April 2022, as the Russian siege of the city intensified, he made what would be his final call home. As he had done many times before, he tried to comfort his wife and daughters with the words: “Everything will be all right.”

That was the last time they heard his voice

Two days later, a fellow soldier’s relative informed the family of their unit’s capture. After the city’s fall, over 2,000 defenders were taken into Russian captivity. Soon after, the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed to his wife that he had been registered as a POW, which should have ensured legal protections under the Geneva Conventions.

A letter from him arrived in August. It was short, affectionate, and ended with the same words: “Everything will be all right.” But what the family later saw online — a video where he appeared frail, bearded, and toothless — suggested otherwise.

Survivor testimony exposes brutal conditions

Hryhoriev was held at the Kamensk-Shakhtinsky Correctional Colony in Russia’s southwest. Former detainee Oleksii Honcharov, who was imprisoned with him, recounted routine beatings for all captives.

“Everyone got hit — no exceptions,” he told AP.

According to Honcharov, violence continued even when prisoners showed serious health problems. He described months of chest pain that received no medical attention. “Toward the end, I could barely walk,” he said. After returning to Ukraine, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis — a condition increasingly found among former POWs.

Hryhoriev, despite his age, was initially resilient. But over time, he became dizzy and weak, eventually needing assistance to walk. Still, according to Honcharov, guards refused to hospitalize him and instead confined him to a cold, unlit cell, isolated except for a fellow Ukrainian prisoner assigned to watch him. He died there about a month later — on 20 May 2023, as recorded by Russian authorities.

Russians claimed stroke, autopsy showed blunt-force trauma

For more than half a year, Hryhoriev’s family heard nothing. Then, in March 2024, Ukrainian police informed them a body had arrived, tagged with his name and accompanied by a Russian death certificate citing a stroke.

Ukrainian forensic experts performed an autopsy. It contradicted the Russian version, identifying blunt-force trauma to the abdomen and damage to the spleen as the cause of death. His body was finally buried in Pyriatyn, Poltava Oblast, in June.

A growing count of dead, and few clear answers

The case of Hryhoriev is one among at least 206 known Ukrainian POW deaths in Russian custody, based on Ukrainian government figures, AP says. Another 245 are believed to have been executed on the battlefield by Russian troops. Human rights organizations and forensic investigators are trying to document the full scope of the violations.

Forensic analysis of repatriated Ukrainian POWs has revealed signs of torture, including fractures, bruises, signs of gangrene or untreated infections, and sometimes missing organs, according to forensic expert Inna Padei. Ukrainian officials report that Russia often withholds bodies until they are too decomposed for reliable autopsy. These findings, alongside survivor testimony, are being compiled to support war crimes investigations. Amnesty International has also accused Russia of concealing POW conditions and obstructing access to its prisons.

Forbidden stories: Ukrainian journalist went to document torture in Russian detention — her body returned without organs

According to a 2024 United Nations report, 95% of released Ukrainian POWs experienced systematic torture, including beatings, suffocation, mock executions, electric shocks, and sexual abuse. By contrast, the report said that while some Russian POWs were mistreated during their initial capture, abuse stopped once they were transferred to official Ukrainian detention facilities.

A family’s tribute

After Hryhoriev’s death was confirmed, his wife and both daughters marked their wrists with the same phrase he had so often repeated during the war: “Everything will be all right.” To them, he remains not just a victim, but “an angel in the sky.”