Exclusive testimony of the doctors from Azovstal after captivity

     Exclusive testimony of the doctors from Azovstal who have returned from Russian captivity.

     Meeting them in everyday life, it would be difficult to realize that it was these two people who have saved hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers in extremely difficult, even inhumane conditions.

     We are talking about military medics Yevhen Herasymenko and Oleksandr Demchenko. They both had been accompanying the Ukrainian military who had been defending the Azovstal iron and steel works in Mariupol, and then together with the defenders of this city destroyed by the Russians in eastern Ukraine, they passed through the infamous Russian filtration camp in Olenivka.

     Yevhen Herasymenko, a colonel of the medical service, an honored doctor of Ukraine, having the experience of five wars (starting with Afghanistan), did not hesitate to fly as a volunteer to the Azovstal plant, where he performed about 300 surgical operations in the "Zheleziak Bunker".

     On March 31, 2022, as a senior group surgical reinforcement, which consisted of Colonel Herasymenko, a surgeon, two anesthesiologists, a neurosurgeon and a nurse, they were taken to the Azovstal coal depot by helicopter. Later, in complete darkness, already by sea, on a boat loaded with ammunition, the military medics arrived on site. At that very time air strikes over the territory of the plant began, so they had to wait for about two to three hours for transport to the "Zheleziak Bunker", where the hospital was located.

     "We had been working in extremely difficult conditions, in the "pre-Lister era", if you will. Such a concept as asepsis was completely absent. Lighting was provided with the help of a generator, which could stall even with a slight overload. Sometimes we performed surgeries, illuminating ourselves with a headlamp," the man says.

     In the bunker, where more than three hundred wounded were, there was no ventilation, there was an incredible stench. Medications were brought from the arsenal of the 555th military hospital in limited quantities. At the same time, there were no blood replenishment drugs, such as blood substitutes. The anesthesiologists supported surgeries on the verge of possibilities.

      "There were also big problems with water and food. For the first time, I felt that, in addition to drinking and technical water, there is also industrial water. Whereas both the wounded and the entire medical staff, who had been working continuously, needed adequate food. The doctors lost 20 to 30 kg of weight. When heavy shells exploded near the bunker, it had been visibly shaking for some time," Yevhen remembers those days in the bunker.

      And then there was the coming out of the Azovstal plant by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and several months of stay in the notorious "Olenivka" colony.

      "There, I had been performing the duties of the barrack's senior medic, had been responsible for epidemic surveillance of all the colonies. I had been managing the reception of patients and their treatment (in the final days there were many patients with acute respiratory infections, as a result of which I fell ill with Covid, which was diagnosed in the main military clinical hospital), bandaging the wounded, carrying out sanitary and educational work, taking sanitary and hygienic and anti-epidemic measures inside the barrack and colony, providing all moral and psychological support to persons who needed it. When moving around the territory of the colony, I brought warm clothes, empty 5-liter water bottles, which were used for taking a bath, cigarettes into the barrack of our prisoners," Yevhen says.

      On September 20, 2022, the medic noticed that the next major prisoners swap was being prepared. According to him, it was unexpected for him to see his name on the lists.

      "The first feeling was inner anxiety. I didn't want to move somewhere, my colleagues, friends, compatriots stayed there. As strange as it may sound, I somehow got used to the local conditions, and, moreover, I prepared myself for a rather long stay in Olenivka," the colonel of the medical service says.

      Oleksandr Demchenko, the captain of the medical service, who had volunteered to fly to the already blocked Mariupol, also had to go through both the blockade and captivity. At the Azovstal plant, the medic had been performing surgeries, rescuing Ukrainian defenders, until the last day.

       "Olenivka is a colony that had been mothballed, and as I see it, no one has been kept there for a long time. So you can only imagine the condition everything is in there. Continuous psychological pressure. Water in barrels from the river and that which, in some places, flows centrally, was of very dubious quality. That's what they cooked with. With the same water! Bread, as a rule, was underbaked. Time for taking a meal was limited. As a result, there were constant disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, diarrhea," Oleksandr tells about the conditions of detention in rashists` captivity. "The condition of prisoners of war was different, as each organism is unique, of different age, health conditions, and the presence of underlying conditions or injury," the doctor says.

      “And I had coped with it. I have become honest with myself. I have realized how beautiful life is, however, it also flies very fast! What is self-sacrifice for the sake of fellows. We had been holding out there until the end. Our soldiers had been fighting heroically until their last breath. In the operating room, the doctors were gods, analyzing my condition and the condition at the Azovstal plant, I understand how significant, strong and constant the level of stress had been on my body," Captain Demchenko admits.

       "I remember my coming out of the Azovstal plant. It was raining, it was chilly, I was walking and glad that I was alive, that I had the opportunity to see the sky, breathe fresh air, see green grass. Because I had not left the bunker for almost two months. I told myself at that time that I had to move on, that I would cope with it," the military medic shared his bitter experience.

       He had spent extremely long 127 days in captivity. And this will remain in his memory for the rest of his life...

      By Volodymyr Buha Niezalezna.

      PLA surgery in the bunker at the Azovstal plant is depicted in the photo, 2022