In Ukraine’s liberated areas, weight of Russian occupation lingers
With the Russian border no farther away than the arcing trajectory of a rifle round, the Ukrainian combat veteran had no chance to escape when Russian troops invaded Ukraine last February.
“I knew I would be captured … so I was waiting for this,” recalls Vitalii, a veteran of fighting Russians and their proxy forces in the eastern Donbas region in 2014 and 2015. His wife buried his Ukrainian military documents – including his commendations as a soldier – but a local boy-turned-collaborator pointed out Vitalii’s house.
Russian troops broke two of his ribs, and for one hour applied electricity to his body with a modified old-style rotary phone, in “revenge” for his previous military service.
As he recounts his ordeal, Vitalii stands in a dank and dark basement beside a makeshift cage welded
