On July 25 the Southern District Military Court of Rostov-on-Don, Russia began criminal proceedings against 16 men and 2 women from the Ukrainian “Aidar” Brigade. This is the second mass trial against the Ukrainian prisoners of war. In June the same court started the hearing of “Azov” battalion fighters’ case. Ukrainian defenders were accused of participating in a “terrorist organization” and violent seizure of power and changing the so-called constitutional order of self-proclaimed DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic) which is Russia-born-and-backed terrorist quasi-formation. The same charges were brought against 18 people affiliated with “Aidar”, including two female medics Maryna Mishchenko and Liliya Prutyan. The majority of the above-mentioned defendants are personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which grants them the prisoner-of-war status and all the protections related. The prosecution of POWs for taking part in the conflict is a war crime and a violation of the 3rd Geneva Convention. Comitting another major breach of international laws, Russia should be held accountable as the party facing trial in the appropriate European courts.
Today my own close friend, Igor Gayoha, a person of an unbreakable spirit and high moral standards is among those facing this show trial which became a public theater for Russian propaganda purposes. Igor was born and raised in Ukraine’s Lugansk region in a patriotic family of natives. They resided just a few miles from the Russian border which made them witnesses of how Russia prepared, transported weapons and invaded their land back in 2014. While Russian troops and agents were already operating in Eastern Ukraine, Kremlin officials as well as media were lying to all of the world community that their troops and citizens were not a part of the “conflict” and had nothing to do with what was happening in Ukraine cynically calling it a “cіvil war”.
Persecutions, tortures, abductions, psychological pressure, and threats became a part of everyday life for those who didn’t support Russians and separatists when they took control over the part of the region. Igor and his family were not an exception especially due to their patriotism and love for Ukraine. At some point the situation turned extremely life threatening and for the sake of the kids Gayohas had to leave everything they had behind and go towards the unknown with two little suitcases. Somewhere at the bottom of everyone’s heart was a vivifying hope it’s all just temporary. Vain hope that has never come true. No need to bet, Igor’s choice was to join the volunteer battalion “Aidar”.
I met him in summer 2014. Igor was a talented young man with an agile mind and a heart of a knight. Over the following years we had spent numerous hours discussing scientific articles and researches, literature, arts, philosophy, etc. It was pleasant to see how his personality was expanding, how he was striving for new knowledge and growth. It was unbelievable that he managed to read so much and even work out in an improvised gym between battles, being literally in the open field.
On February 24, 2022 my friend met Russia's full scale invasion on the front line. The battles drastically increased their intensity as the enemy advanced in large columns and huge quantities which made the situation drastically unequal. Despite that Igor had held his position for several exhausting days with countless challenges, but at some point their group needed to retreat. Their vehicle was heavily shelled on the way out…
On March 4, I got a phone call from my sister Maryna saying that our boy was murdered. Soon after that I received details from Igor’s family: his brothers in arms who survived shelling witnessed that Igor got heavily wounded and didn’t show any signs of life. His body was left on the battlefield due to zero possibility of extraction. There are no words to describe how heartbreaking that news was to everybody who knew Igor. I felt it like losing the whole unique Universe that my friend carried inside of his soul and mind, the priceless treasure of knowledge, skills and inner light, which is so necessary for surviving, well-being and development of his country and the world as a whole. We were told: we lost it all.
In about a month Igor’s sister Galyna struck me with astonishing news: Igor survived however was in danger again - he got into Russian captivity. The family had no way to help or even contact him. A wave of anxiety and worries engulfed us: we didn’t know how he was doing and if he was keeping body and soul together in the conditions of the captivity being severely injured. In June it was the only and the last time Igor’s mom and sister had an opportunity to talk to him during the unexpected Viber call from captivity. Being pale and exhausted physically but still strong with his inner self Igor cheered up his closest and most loved with warm and certain words of support calming and assuring them that everything would be good.
Seemingly endless months were going by. Months full of uncertainty, absolute absence of connection and possibility to follow his status and destiny. The rare but precious information was brought by a few of those who got swapped from captivity and had happened to meet Igor back there. Each of them told: Igor was badly wounded, his bones had fused together incorrectly, nevertheless his spirit remained indestructible and invincible. Not only was he keeping his hope alive but was also sparkling it back in his fellow POWs who had lost it already or even were on the way of committing suicide.
In addition we got terrifying pieces of information. For instance, the prison guards were conducting an experiment to see if Igor would survive in miserable detention conditions without extremely necessary medical help in his case . There were more testimonies regarding cruelty, abuse, torture and mistreatment. Similar atrocities and cruelty to prisoners were also reported by observers from international monitoring groups earlier during the previous years on the occupied territories of Lugansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine. Overall, this has been and continues to be a source of serious concern regarding Igor's safety and the safety and fate of all other Ukrainian defenders. At that time captives were held near occupied Donetsk. As of today, “Aidar” POWs have already been transferred to Russia and their case has been reclassified according to Russia's criminal code, which by no means makes the spectacle trials neither more fair, nor legal from the perspective of the civilized world.
In recent years, human rights movements and monitoring organizations have consistently documented numerous violations of the right to a fair trial in Russia. These violations include but are not limited to, politically motivated prosecutions, fabrication of evidence, and the use of torture to extract confessions. Videos and pictures from the courtrooms in Rostov clearly demonstrate to us that defendants look exhausted and malnourished which indicates inhumane treatment and bad conditions in the place of detention.
To me, my friend Igor embodies the plight of the thousands of defenders trapped in the hellish grip of the Russian repression machine.They all need to be freed. All future convictions resulting from falsified cases must be considered null and void.
It is obvious for everyone that those who invaded are aggressors and must be brought to justice, not those who were defending their Motherland and freedom on their own territory. Most of the defendants on current trials staged in Rostov are native to Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. They were obviously fighting for their homes and the lives of their loved ones, well knowing what Russian “liberators” are.
P.S. There is an illustrative moment in Igor's story that again shatters the distorting mirror of Russian propaganda, which opposes civilians of southern and eastern Ukrainian territories to Ukrainian fighters, dehumanizing and portraying them as mythical “neo-nazis”. It turned out that before getting into captivity Igor spent a few weeks being hidden by locals who discovered and rescued him. They were sheltering and nursing the warrior themselves but despite their efforts, his severe injuries required professional and more intensive medical care. Igor was transferred to a hospital where medical personnel secretly continued saving his life risking their own. This is where the rhetorical question is raised: would so many people make such sacrifices rescuing and secretly nursing the Ukrainian soldier during ruthless and lawless Russian occupation if they didn’t genuinely take his side and support this soldier with all of their nature?
Victoria Tsymbal
August 2023
Atlanta
