"It's very hard to talk about captivity,' he says He met a girl and they fell in love so quickly that within months they were engaged. We were at the flowers and candy stage, he says. When the Russian invasion came on 24 February 2022 he was deployed in Mariupol, at the Illich steel plant. The seaport city was battered and besieged; tens of thousands of Ukrainians were killed and 90% of the city was destroyed."
"On 12 April, as his unit was told by their commander to surrender to avoid being wiped out, Polianskyi learned his girlfriend was pregnant. It was the 48th day of war when he was taken into Russian captivity, and Polianskyi spent the next three years being beaten, starved, tortured and poisoned. Valentyn with his rabbit, which he bought after being released by the Russians Sometimes, I find it easier not to talk at all. It's very hard to talk about captivity, he says"
Valentyn Polianskyi was raised in Kherson by his aunt and grandmother after his mother died. He trained in tailoring but joined the 36th marine brigade as a material support sergeant. He deployed to Mariupol at the Illich steel plant when the Russian invasion began on 24 February 2022. His unit surrendered on 12 April; he learned his girlfriend was pregnant that day and was taken into Russian captivity on the 48th day of war. He spent three years suffering beatings, starvation, torture, poisoning, and medical neglect. He returned to find a wife and a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and faces difficult family reintegration.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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