Andrii Pereverziev, a serviceman from Ukraine’s 79th Air Assault Brigade, has shared his experience of torture while in Russian captivity, where he was branded with the phrase "Glory to Russia" on his body. Despite this, he says he wants to return to military service.

Source: Andrii Pereverziev in an interview with UNITED24

Warning: This article contains descriptions of traumatic events that may be distressing.

Details:Andrii was captured on 24 February 2024 after being seriously wounded during a fierce battle. Together with his comrades, he had been holding a position he described as "hell on earth".

"There was nothing left. Not even tree stumps. We had one dugout and a roughly two-metre-long covered entrance. That was it," he recalled.

Despite the extreme conditions, they managed to hold back repeated Russian assaults. One day, a grenade exploded next to Andrii inside the dugout, and he lost consciousness.

He came to as Russian soldiers were dragging him out. At first, he thought he had lost both legs, as he could not feel them.

"They were shocked. They asked, 'How did you survive? We checked – you had no pulse, no breath, no heartbeat'," Andrii recounted.

Though he had not lost his legs, he was unable to walk. Russian troops carried him on a stretcher to their position. He drifted in and out of consciousness, likely due to blood loss.

Andrii said that they did not treat his wounds but welcomed him with beatings "to make sure I didn’t forget where I was". Over the next few hours, he was interrogated and tortured, including being electrocuted directly on open wounds.

Eventually, he was handed over to medics who operated on him. Andrii only learned that "Glory to Russia" had been burned into his torso two days later, when a nurse came to change his bandages.

"I asked for water and pointed to it. She said, 'No, they didn’t allow you to drink'. Then she said, 'Don’t worry, when you’re back home, you can cover it up with a tattoo or something'," he recalled. At the time, he didn’t understand what she meant.

He saw the inscription on his torso made by the Russian surgeon for the first time a week later. When the guards were changing his bandages again, the Ukrainian dared to look at what had happened to his abdomen.

"I said, 'You freaks, I’ll shoot you all'. They didn’t do anything – they just beat me again," Andrii said.

He was later moved to a penal colony before eventually being returned to Ukraine. He says it was a promise to his daughter that helped him endure captivity.

"I want to return to service, but it depends on how the operations go and what doctors say – whether I can carry weight, wear body armour and so on. If all goes well, I’ll be back," the defender said.

Andrii was released as part of the thousand-for-thousand prisoner exchange, brokered between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul.

Doctors have begun removing the branded inscription. The first step involves injections of polynucleotides to soften scar tissue. The actual removal will be done with lasers.

Doctor Maksym Turkevych, who is leading the procedure, said it "will be painful and unpleasant", despite the use of local or general anaesthesia.

Scarring will remain, but the recovery process will depend on Andrii’s individual healing response. "We’ll have a clearer idea after the first laser sessions. Our estimate is that we’ll see significant results in about six months," Turkevych added.

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