The deputy chief medical director of the Military Medical Service of the Ministry of Defense
of Donetsk republic talking about tortures and chemical biological and other unconventional weapon using by Kiev junta. Full translation of interview below:
ДНР. Донецк. Интервью с зам. начмеда о пленных. 16.09.2014
Doctor: I am a deputy chief medical director of the Military Medical Service of the Ministry of Defense.
Journalist: Could you tell us what the situation is with the fighters liberated from captivity?
D: Within one week we received five of them. Two of them are in respectively normal condition. Phycologists and psychiatrists are working them because it is very difficult for them to cope with this now. And three other fighters are in serious condition. One of them has an Ilizarov apparatus on his legs [ The Ilizarov compression-distraction apparatus is a medical device intended for long-term fixation of bone fragments], he is more or less fine, he can still walk. But the two are difficult: one of them has a head injury. He was obviously hit into his head with a metal object, supposedly a metal stick. There, in captivity they tried to operate on him and do a craniotomy. Obviously unsuccessfully. He literally came with two holes in his head which were not healed. His left kidney is injured. He was seriously beaten. He has got broken fingers and was left with no teeth. You can tell that they did it intentionally, they tortured him. Another seriously injured fighter… he was beaten into kidneys and liver, lumbar part of the spine is injured… his face, well, it is just a violet mask. They must have beaten him intentionally. He also doesn’t have any teeth left, his nose is broken. In general, they can hardly move by themselves. They are subjected to intensified medical treatment.
J: What is their mental condition now? Shock?
D: After the tortures? I think there is more than just a shock. They are terrified now, terrified of a lot of things. However, they are trying to boost the morale, they are very glad that they are in DPR now, among their guys. But they are very, very depressed. Of course, psychologists are working with them. And they are interrogated by our Special Service, because they have been there [in the captivity of Ukrainian army], they have seen something, we are interested in details. It is clear that today they can be filmed under no account. Maybe in a week or two you will be able to talk to them if they will be willing to, because a lot of people like that don’t want to be filmed. Even those who were simply injured. They are afraid for their families. They are afraid of “cleansing” [cleansing is action of fascists then they broke doors, beat people who in homes and take somebody out for torturers]. There is the third round of “cleansing” in Kramatorsk now. A lot of people have their families there. Their children, mothers, fathers. That is why they do not want to talk on camera.
J: Can we say they tortures are applied everywhere and to all the fighters [of DPR and LPR]?
D: Absolutely yes. For example, quite some time ago already, but still we had a girl that was tortured. She had destroyed muscles of heels. Atrociously injured, she could not walk. She had wounds on her arms and bruises all over soft tissue of her back. Everybody is severely bitten.
…In addition we were receiving the 300th [the code for the wounded] after the exchange. Yes, the wounded. The simply looked like a piece of meat, because they had ribs sticking out of torn skin, and the wound was rotting. This is the condition, in which our wounded are brought to us. As for the wounded Ukrainians, we give them back clean, well-fed and dressed. All wrapped up in neat white bandages, all of them get highest level medical assistance. All of them are polished clean. When we give them back they look like baby dolls. But we get back bags with meat. As I told, there are many guys with open wounds and ribs sticking out, they come to us, come to our hands and die. The die after getting back to their own people. They simply can’t bear this any longer.
J. : So there are very many lethal cases, right?
D.: There have been cases, when 300th become 200th [the code for the dead] only because they relax.
J.: Do you know how many our guys are still kept as POW by Ukraine?
D.: I think there are many enough. We cannot keep accurate count. Many guys join the militia without even informing their parents. Some go siply saying “mom, I am going to join the militia, bye”. There are a lot of unidentified people – both those killed and the wounded. Many are brought to us, and they can’t remember, where they are from and who and what they are. The know they are from DPR, they know they are members of militia, but sometimes they can remember their first name, but can’t remember their surname. It happens very often after severe blast injuries… Even the consequences of this – if they are delivered to us right after the blast injury happens, they can remember. If such a person tells us everything right away – it is good, we remember that. However after two or three days pass, the consequences start and he starts losing his memory. We had one youg man, he could not remember his mom’s phone number. He could only remember the first figures – 095, and that was it. So we struggling for a whole week pulling him out so he could remember his mom’s phone number. Thank god he remembered. These are very severe consequences. It is very hard.
J.: Are there any guys, who have come back to normal, and what is their fate?
D. : Well, we have put a lot of guys back on their feet. Many of them are already back to their units at the frontline. Almost all of them go back to the front line. Sometimes they even run away. He gets some medical assistance, sees that he can walk and hold his rifle – so he runs away. They simply run away to the front line. Certainly, we put a lot of guys back on their feet and recovered them, but we also have a lot, who are severely wounded. There are very many severely wounded people in our hospitals. Now we get a lot of severe burns. I don’t know what they are throwing at our guys, I can’t give you such information, although I also go to the front line, but they come to us severely burnt. They are probably using some sort of napalm. There are poisonings…
For example there is a piece of GRAD rocket lying in my yard. Just near it there is a cluster bomb. I mean the fact that they are using prohibited weapons is no some kind of play or invented stories – this is a real fact. They are bombing us with anything they can. One village here was shelled with something, which nobody can identify. All the people were vomiting and had terrible diarrhea. And no matter what they eat or drink – they would vomit. It took is 3-4 hours to stop the vomiting. Then we would pump 3-4 liters of medicine into them, and only then they would more or less come back to normal. Can you imagine that – we basically had to completely clean-wash their whole organism. This is what in fact happened to that village. There were at least 60-70 such people. And they included anyone from little babies to very old people with zero immunity. As for being taken prisoner…
This is horrible. Becoming a prisoner is horrible for our guys. I think it is better to right away shoot oneself instead. There is no guarantee that you will get out alive. Our you can come back as a cripple – who needs a cripple? Many people think about this. The relative clearly think different – no matter what the condition is, they just want him back alive. But they are horribly tortured there. Just horribly.
J.: Thank you for your comment.
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