I lost my mind / Article

You can find the Ukrainian version here.
original in Russian – This.

Oleksiy Anulis was captured after the battle on March 9, 2022 in the village of Sloboda, Chernihiv region. “I was lying in a ditch for 12 hours, and then I went to a nearby town for another 12 hours. During the siege. And a local resident noticed me, who handed me over to the Russians too. I didn’t surrender myself.”

The residents tried to capture Oleksiy for about forty minutes. According to him, realizing that he was under siege, he tried to hide in the graves, but they started trying to force him to go to the open field: “There were two other burnt houses behind me, where I was theoretically still able to do it but there was an open field over there.

In fact, it was a real adrenaline rush when I saw them so close. I had eggs and candies in my hands, given to me by local women.

I tried to convince them that I was just a local resident out looking for food. Because you need to eat something. I don’t know how many I proved them. However, when they took off my hood and saw the injury, they immediately stepped back, pointed a gun at me and started beating me, saying – you are Ukrainian, we have been watching you all night! When I hit the back of the head with a cable, I fell. I started to steal. No one intended to take me to prison. However, when they started to take off the belt, but it had the word “Pentagon” on it, they decided that I was a mercenary. Then he made a neck strap from his belt and dragged him to the fence to shoot his sergeant in the front.”

Oleksiy compared the incident to a gang attack in the backyard:

“Understand that they are all up to your waist, but they have assault rifles, but I’m wounded – my left arm is completely out of action.”

Oleksiy remembers that at that time he had no desire to try to stay alive. He remembers asking his wife to call him, but when the first two shots rang out, he turned towards the shooters. Then, according to him, the residents called that he was a soldier and they started mocking him more.

“These pictures were heard by their commander. He drove up with a tracked vehicle and started to find out who I was and how he found out that people have been living in the area for several days, but his soldiers did not notice me. He had complaints about how I got there and what the soldiers did in this town.

Already after his release, he came to the place where he was caught. “I saw the fence where they wanted to shoot me first. There was no order to take prisoners. Just a case, such an attack. When I was on my knees, two shots were fired at this fence But when we got there with journalists, the whole fence was in the holes.

The wounded Oleksiy, bound, with a bag on his head and covered with tape, was later taken to a barracks on a farm. There he saw other prisoners of war, also with bags on their heads, as well as soldiers of the Russian army, and he was surprised that they were dressed as they happened to be – torn crosses and knitted jackets.

For questioning, Oleksiy was taken to a man he identified as Lieutenant General Poplavsky.

At first, Oleksiy said that he was a local resident, but the general did not believe this story. Putting a gun to Oleksiy’s head, he said he would give him a moment to tell him who he was. Then Oleksii said that the driver who was providing humanitarian aid to the local maternity hospital was caught in the crossfire.

“They started questioning me. They asked who is shooting at the city. I say – you are shooting yourself. He became wild, foaming at the mouth, he began to spit . And he started kicking me,” he recalls.

When the interrogations were over, Oleksiy and the other prisoners were ordered into a KamAZ truck containing corpses and sacks of potatoes, followed by a four-hour journey to the “torture house”. When he arrived, Oleksiy was severely beaten and then made to crawl with his hands tied.

But when they found a partner with him, they took him seriously, tormented him, and mocked him. During the interview, Oleksiy said that he was stabbed in the leg with a knife, that he spent several days hanging from the ceiling, tied with an extension cord, and that he was raped more than once. One of his torturers had such a kind voice that Oleksiy understood – he does not know people at all, because he always thought that people with such a voice could not do such a torture.

Oleksii was in captivity from March to December 2022. He says that the thought process did not end – the head was working all the time. Even better than now.

“There was always an analysis going on in my head. The slightest squeak in the corridor, a knock, a walk – I was already trying to work out who was going. It was known I have in advance what diet it would be – wheat bran or bran bran I would have to stay for two days, because on the third day I dig the bran, and they will be fuller As soon as I stop. thinking, time began to drag forward immediately, a dead end began,” Oleksiy said.

In the interview, the presenter Alona Borisova asked the question – how did you manage not to look at the whole world and continue to live, as well as remember and talking about?

“I’m going crazy, just in my own way. I’m also annoying to some extent,” he said.

However, as time passes, he sees what happened as dry facts.

“I don’t look at it like it’s my whole life anymore. It’s a part of my life,” he said.

According to Oleksiy, it is important and needs to be talked about. If this is not done, in the future, prisoners will have much less chance of going through rehabilitation and returning to life.

“People come back from captivity, withdraw into themselves, separated from their families. I don’t want that to happen. I wanted to start, so that the boys can continue, but no someone wants,” said Oleksiy.

You can watch the entire interview with Oleksiy (in Russian). watch here.