Testimony of Medical Neglect in Conflict

Then, well, they loaded me, uh, into the car.

There. Uh, they took me to the hospital, there, well, they have a hospital there.

There, they took me to the hospital. We get there, and they start writ— well, everyone... they write the numbers on your neck, like they do for the dead.

Like, remember it. If you don't remember it, I'll shoot you.

You can say the number quietly there, for example.

So, well, you have to hear it, you absolutely have to remember it.

They bring you in, take you down, and you say the number, the number.

They look at me, at what happened to me, of course.

They tell me, "Yeah, kid, we'll sell you for your organs. Show me your teeth."

There, well, the doctor comes over really seriously and looks, at what my teeth are like, if they look normal or not.

We'll sell you for your organs. There, she looks at the, the result, looks at the wound.

She took some cotton wool and treated it.

They'll treat you in Russia. Goodbye. And, well, that's it, take him away.

So they didn't do anything there? They didn't even bandage the wounds or anything?

No, they treated everything. Then, goodbye. They'll treat you in Russia.

And before that, they even said they'd harvest your organs, or something like that.

And the guys who were, well, traveling with me there, yeah.

Some of them had, well, serious wounds, after being shot up by a machine gun. They, well, needed serious help, they even needed to get some packing.

They just wrapped them up, already in the combat zone.

They didn't do anything else. Well, it got to the point where, well, the guys could just, well, have died. Just like that man there, he needed, well, to have, well, they had the chance, since they'd brought him to the hospital,

to operate and provide medical care. Instead, they just tossed him into a vehicle like he was trash, and took him to the camp, And they let it get so bad that eventually they cut off his legs.

So they deliberately didn't give him any medical care?

Well, they didn't, no. And eventually, like, an infection set in.

Well, basing it on that, on that, I don't know how they could have based it on that, since, well, we saw them come over and ask for help, they were even ready to give up their own medical care, but, well, they cut them off.

Well, at least in my case, with one man, they cut off his legs.

Were you also subjected to abuse, some kind of torture?

They beat us. They beat us in the camp too, there, the first deputy, his assistants.

All right. What do you think of the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian military?

What do I think? The ones at the front, well, the guys, many of them, well, as they themselves said, Well, they gathered them up from everywhere, They took them away from home, they did.

So they have to, because they have no other option.

And, well, I feel sorry for them.