Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦@rshereme
“What the fascists did to prisoners of war looks like cartoons compared to what the russians did to us.”
They beat him with rifle butts along his spine, used electric shocks, drowned him in a toilet, and kept him for eight months without daylight.
This is the testimony of Valentyn “Did” Ponomaryov, who spent 1,195 days in captivity.
On the first day of the full-scale invasion, he joined the Svatove territorial defense as a volunteer, even though he was already retired.
The battalion commander asked: “Grandpa, how old are you?”
“62 and a half.”
“Take a rifle and get into the trench.”
His wife was against it, but she understood. He told her: “I’m sorry, I can’t do otherwise.”
He spent 3 years, 3 months, and 10 days in captivity. He was held in Luhansk Detention Center No. 4, Colony No. 38 in Sverdlovsk, and in Mordovia.
In the detention center, they put a bag over his head, attached wires to his ears, and shocked him with electricity from a flashlight.
“So, old man, how is it? Can your heart handle it?” the torturer would ask, increasing the current. The head of one detention center personally killed two prisoners.
An “Akhmat” commander would take them out for mock executions, firing a silenced pistol past their heads. Valentyn said: “In a fraction of a second, my whole life flashed before my eyes.”
In Mordovia, for eight months there were no walks and no daylight, as the windows were sealed with metal from the outside. Every time the door opened, all prisoners had to fall to their knees, cross their legs behind them, stretch their arms toward their shoulder blades, and press their foreheads and noses to the floor.
After his release, Valentyn still had a callus on his forehead for a long time. They drowned him in a toilet.
They forced him to play clapping games for two hours. He was made to sing the russian anthem up to 15 times a day. At every meal, he had to shout: “Glory to the russian special forces!”
But the worst part of captivity was the thought that he would be seen as a traitor in Ukraine and that his son would abandon him.
Instead, it turned out that his son, through university friends, had been searching for him and did everything possible to secure his release as quickly as possible.
On July 23, 2025, he was freed. When the bus entered the Chernihiv region, people stood along the road with flashlights, welcoming them. Tears streamed down Valentyn’s face.
He is now 66 years old. After his release, he underwent three surgeries and still needs another. His wife was also held hostage by russians.
His son is currently serving in the army. His hometown, Svatove, remains under occupation.
Valentyn said: “If I could turn back time, I would still go. I cannot sit at home when the enemy has come to your land.”
Source: translated from Tymofiy Mylovanov
