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Vladyslav miraculously survived.
Screenshot Video / Suspilne
A Ukrainian National Guardsman has survived an almost incomprehensible ordeal: Russian soldiers cut his throat and left him for dead. He spent five days crawling to safety.
Warning: This text contains explicit descriptions of violence.
The story of Vladyslav, a 33-year-old Ukrainian National Guardsman, is nothing short of a miracle. According to the Kyiv Independent newspaper, he and other comrades were captured by Russian troops near Pokrovsk. The soldiers brutally tortured their prisoners: "They gouged out their eyes, cut off their lips, ears and genitals," Vladyslav later wrote in his diary.
He himself was the last of eight men to be thrown into a pit - with his throat cut and declared dead by his tormentors. But Wladyslaw survived. Severely injured and almost bleeding to death, he crawled for five days towards Ukrainian-controlled territory. On August 17, he was taken to a hospital in the Dnipropetrovsk region in a critical condition.
"When someone has their throat cut, there is hardly any chance of survival," explained head physician Serhij Ryschenko. The fact that Vladyslav held out was only due to his willpower: "He was convinced until the end that everything would turn out well."
The soldier had to be operated on immediately. He is still unable to speak, but records his memories in a diary.
The case is one of many documented war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine. Last month alone, the Ukrainian General Prosecutor's Office reported at least 273 executed prisoners of war - a clear violation of international law.
