On the 24 of February, turmoil began in the city. We ran to the Military Commissariat. There they told us: take things and documents, leave for Mykolaiv. Where should I go? My mother-in-law is sick, my mother is without a father, he was buried three years ago. His wife and younger 17-year-old son are at home. I decided that I will help here. The head of the Kherson Territorial Defence Forces headquarters Valentyn Kuzmenko called me and said:
"Come, we need help."
He gave me a bus and I started transporting people around the city. We felled trees, blocked roads to slow down the movement of the Russians. In the early days, Russians bypassed Kherson and did not enter the city itself.
1
The Russians entered Kherson on March 1 and shot our units of the Territorial Defence Forces (TDF) in the Byzkovyi Park. The TDF commander told us to divide. I drove everyone home and had to hide the bus. A column of Russian vehicles was moving through the city, and I was in uniform, with a machine gun and ammunition. I sat it out [the Russian convoy] and went to another part of the city to my friend. I spent the night at his place, changed clothes, and buried the machine gun. In the morning I went home by bicycle. Soon the connection disappeared.
The Russian military in the Kherson region, 2022.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
In a few days, the Russians came to my house, when I and my relatives were not there. They surrounded the house from all sides and tore the gate open with hydraulic shears. They took all the documents and gadgets, left my photo and a note with my phone number. I dialed, they told me to come to Freedom Square and find an investigator with the call sign "Alan". He kept me on hold all day, said that the information on me was taken from the SBU computers. He asked how I was connected with intelligence and why I went to Crimea in 2014. In the evening I was released.
In May, FSB came to me. At 5 a.m. I heard a noise and saw the gate open. They found out that I served in the Territorial Defence Forces. They pulled a cap over my eyes and wrapped it with tape, and tied my hands behind my back with plastic ties. They took my wife and son out and searched the whole house. They put me in a car, drove me around the city for half an hour and brought me to the building of the National Police Headquarters [in the Kherson region]. I knew where I was because I worked there. There is no sunlight. Instead of a bed, there is a stage made of wood. There are one water bottle, and one empty one — instead of a toilet. They fed [us] a glass of boiling water and macaroni products. During the interrogations, the FSB emloyees were "educated" [us] with a metal pipe. They threatened [me] that they would "abandon" my son, throw my wife into the Dnipro River, and take me to the Urals to live as a homeless person. They kept me for a week, forced me to sign a statement banning me from leaving the city. After that, I couldnʼt sleep after 6 a.m. Any car outside the window or a small noise in the neighbours caused panic. I got up and ran outside. I was afraid that they would come again.
2
The second time I was taken away on July 31. They introduced themselves as the "Russian police" and knocked out my teeth with the butt of a machine gun. They took me to the detention center. There was a tile on the floor, and after the torture they washed it of blood. We were tortured according to the schedule: in the morning and in the evening, for one and a half hours. They put us on wet rags and the current was applied, they beaten us with sticks, and metal balls; they shot us from pneumatics, which penetrated under the skin. Men were raped with rubber sticks, and women were forced to watch [this]. I was electrocuted so that my intestines burned afterwards.
Our cell was right next to the guardʼs table.
They shouted to him: "Vasya, go get him, he is already dead."
In response, he said:
"Turn him on another side — he will start breathing."
One of the torture chambers in the city of Kherson, in which the Russian occupiers kept people. An inscription on the wall of one of the Russian torture chambers in Kherson.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
They treated us as unclean, non-human, garbage.
"Who allowed you to live so well?" they said.
During interrogations, they were most interested in weapons: where and who has them. They asked where to look for anti-terrorist and state security forces. I explained that I did faces these people in my work. And that I donʼt have any weapons.
"You lie," they said and everything started again: torture and interrogation. Then they either drive you out or carry you out if you can no longer go on your own.
Our mayor [Ihor] Kolykhaev was sitting next to me in the pre-trial detention center. He was beaten just like everyone else. His security chief was sitting in my cell. His driver and bodyguard were sitting nearby in the cell — they were released at the end of August. In a few days, I was also released. Ihor Kolykhaev remained there. It was scary in the city. You walk on it and you were detained — and thatʼs it, youʼre done.
3
On the 9 November, we heard how the equipment was moving towards the Antonivsky Bridge [which connects the two banks]. We understood that they were coming. It was hard to hold back tears when I saw our boys. My mother-in-law was sick and did not live to see the liberation of the city for a week.
A woman hugs a soldier after the liberation of Kherson. Freedom Square in Kherson after the liberation of the city from Russian occupation.
Stas Kozlyuk / «Babel'»; Getty Images / «Babel'»
After the liberation of Kherson, we recovered from the shock for probably a month. I testified about Russian capture and torture by Ukrainian investigators. We went to visit my son in Khmelnytskyi. When we returned to the city, the utility workers had already connected the electricity and water supply. We celebrated the New Year 2023 together with our neighbours. When I was in captivity, they supported my wife and — despite all the risks — brought me supplies. We set up a samovar that burns with wood — we drank tea, and sang "Chervona Kalyna" song.
In the spring, I began to improve my health and work. I bought a truck and started working as a driver at the Kherson "Nova Post". Itʼs almost two years since I delivered goods from the terminal to the post office. Since then, I have been submitting documents to the Ministry of Reintegration to obtain prisoner status. The guys who sat with me in the pre-trial detention center confirmed that I was there. But there is no way I can get the necessary documents from SBU. They say they have handed over the case to the investigating police. The investigator says that it has not yet reached him.
4
We have three sons. They are already adults. The youngest one was with us during the occupation, and then we sent him to Poland. We havenʼt seen him in two years.
In the fall of 2023, the children gave us a one-week trip to Yaremche.
"Thank God they [the Russians] didnʼt get to this beauty," my wife cried and said.
They destroyed, burned, and cut down our beauty. That year 2023 passed in one breath. We both had stable jobs — we were busy in the morning and until late at night. We began to put the house in order.
Kostyantyn with his wife Oleksandra.
I canʼt get used to the constant shelling of Kherson. We have already come under fire and drops of drones.
“Well, what do we do with it? This is war,” I told the wife.
As soon as something flies near us, she immediately cries. We are distracted by caring for animals — we were elected in the district to be responsible for their care. We bring feed and take care of them.
The names of the people who tortured me are already known. At the beginning of October, our investigators called me for identification. They established names, surnames and call signs. Of couse, Iʼm very happy about this. If even they were still caught — alive — so that we would punish them here a little — in such way, which they punished us, but unknown why.
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