Serhii Dobrovolskyi, a Ukrainian soldier who had been in Russian captivity since 2023, has died only a month after his launch on the finish of Could as a part of a 1000-for-1000 prisoner swap, an official from the soldier's residence area introduced on June 21.
The case is the newest in a series of Ukrainian troopers' surprising deaths after their return from Russian captivity, highlighting the results of "widespread and systematic" torture of prisoners of warfare (POWs) in Russian prisons, reported by the U.N.
"Serhii Dobrovolskyi was launched from captivity on the finish of Could this 12 months. A couple of days in the past, he was met by his fellow townspeople in his hometown," wrote the top of the soldier's native Zdolbuniv district in Rivne Oblast, Vladyslav Sukhliak, on Fb. The precise reason for dying was not instantly introduced.
A video posted by the Zdolbuniv metropolis council on June 17 exhibits Dobrovolskyi being greeted in Zdolbuniv by a crowd chanting the Ukrainian anthem because the soldier is hugging his mom. He was additionally introduced with a korovai, a spherical bread loaf, as a part of the symbolic Ukrainian custom of welcome with bread and salt.
"Lastly, after nearly two years, the mom hugged her son," the Zdolbuniv metropolis council commented on the video.
Sukhliak added that Dobrovolskyi was 43 years outdated on the time of dying. "The warfare with the damned (Russian) occupiers takes lives and well being of the defenders," he wrote.
Earlier in June, one other Ukrainian soldier returned from Russian captivity had died unexpectedly.
Dmytro Shapovalov, a 32-year-old defender of Ukraine who was exchanged in 2023 after over a 12 months in Russian prisons, had died on June 9, in response to the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.
His sister Anastasiia stated that Shapovalov endured torture, starvation, and psychological strain in captivity. After his launch, Shapovalov returned to army service. He died in his sleep, presumably from coronary heart failure, Suspilne experiences.
After his dying, a consultant of the Coordination Headquarters managing the prisoner swaps, Yuliia Pavliuk, printed a video exhibiting Shapovalov consuming an apple on the day of his launch.
"I had simply been dreaming about an apple for a 12 months," Shapovalov says within the video.
In 2023, a high-ranking officer from the "Azov" brigade, Oleh Mudrak, died at 35 years outdated, months after his launch from Russian captivity. As a POW, he survived the Olenivka camp explosion and endured a dramatic weight reduction in simply 100 days, as seen within the pictures printed by Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian author and activist.
Remedy of "Azov" fighters in Russian prisons is notoriously brutal because of their nationalistic values and Russian propaganda that labored for years to smear the unit's status each in Russia and internationally.
Some Azov fighters died from torture in Russian captivity or had been sentenced to a long time in jail for alleged warfare crimes. A lot of them had been among the many 54 Ukrainian prisoners killed in an explosion in Olenivka penal colony within the Russian-occupied a part of Donetsk Oblast on July 28, 2022.
Ukraine accused Russia of orchestrating the explosion, whereas Russia has been systematically stopping worldwide organizations from conducting an impartial investigation on the location of the assault.
The U.N. reported widespread torture of Ukrainian POWs in Russia and brutal circumstances of their detention over the previous years.
The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy