Ukrainian POW's life during 4 months of his imprisonment by Russians: blood-curdling

When Ukrainian marine Mykhailo Dianov was released from Russian detention, his photo shocked the world. His body was emaciated after four months as a prisoner of war.

When I met him, he was unrecognisable from the photos I'd seen of the well-built fighter in Mariupol, Ukraine. His clothes hung from his frail frame, Sky News reporter Sally Lockwood writes. His gaunt face seemed far older than his 42 years.

I had so many questions. Crucially, did you worry you wouldn't survive?

"We thought about this every day," Mykhailo tells me. "We first started having those thoughts at the Azovstal steel plant.

"At Azovstal we thought it was the end."

Mykhailo was taken following weeks under siege in Mariupol defending the steel works. It was the last corner of the city to fall in May.

He was among 215 recently released in a high-profile prisoner swap with Russia, and spoke exclusively with Sky News about captivity.
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"Believe me, after a month of being starved, when you close your eyes, you forget about your family, about your country, about everything. The only thing you think about is food."

Mykhailo lost 40kg (more than six stone) in weight in his four months as a prisoner of war.

"It was impossible to eat. You were given 30 seconds for each meal," says Mikhailo. "In 30 seconds you had to eat everything you could.

"Bread was deliberately very hard. Guys who had their teeth knocked out couldn't manage to eat in time.

"It was 30 seconds, and then you had to stop. Then you had to get up straight away and run. It was like that all the time.

"They treated us like animals."

The meals sound pitiful, and the process of eating utterly humiliating.

This all took place in the Olenivka prison in Russian-controlled Donetsk - a place Mikhailo refers to as a concentration camp.

"We were stripped completely naked. They took off our medical casts, everything. They searched us. And then we had to squat like that for five hours. Without a bench, of course.

"We simply waited. We didn't know what was going to happen to us," says Mikhailo.

He has a large graze at the top of his nose. I ask what happened.

"Duct tape," he replies. "They wrapped tape around my head and pushed their legs into my stomach, so they could make it tighter, and I spent a day, a day and a half like that."

He now needs to gain 20kg before he can have corrective surgery on his arm.

The psychological impact will likely take far longer to treat.

"Everyone is traumatised," he tells me, "I consider myself to be a mentally strong person, but for me a lot of things have lost their value."

The picture he's painted of Russian detention is far worse than many imagined.

Many of the conditions described are against the Geneva Conventions. And thousands more Ukrainian prisoners of war are understood to still be in Olenivka prison.