Testimony of Veteran Maksym Lapatin
Maksym Lapatin, a veteran of the 92nd Brigade, has recounted his 20 months in Russian captivity, including 12 months spent in a pre-trial detention center in Mordovia. He reports that prisoners faced systematic torture, such as beatings, electric shocks, and being forced to remove their own tattoos. Lapatin says he was compelled to sing the Russian national anthem and drink boiling water. He was captured on June 9, 2022, in the Kharkiv region and exchanged on January 31, 2024, in the Sumy region.
Conditions and Suffering in Captivity
While detained, Lapatin and his fellow soldiers endured appalling conditions. In Mordovia, they were regularly beaten and forced to wash bandages used to wrap infected wounds, receiving only one bandage every three to four months. 'People are rotting and washing bandages,' Lapatin stated. Prisoners also faced physical punishment for talking in their cells; Lapatin and a comrade were hit with a stun gun on their genitals 12 times for speaking.
“You ask for medicine, you reach out your hand, and they hit it with a stun gun and say: 'There, you're healed. Want more medicine?'” - Maksym Lapatin
In captivity, Lapatin and his comrades made needles from chicken bones to repair their clothes. Prisoners were forced to do thousands of squats, and were allowed outside for just two minutes once every two weeks.
“For New Year's, they gave us gifts—blows to the liver,” he emphasized. After his release, Lapatin returned to the Dnipropetrovsk region, but due to intensified shelling, he was forced to evacuate to the Ivano-Frankivsk region in May 2026. The village of Vyshchetarasivka, where he now lives, has been under constant attack since March 2026.
During his captivity, Lapatin and other prisoners were given a wooden phone to 'call' their families, and were allowed only one to two minutes to eat. 'They give us crumbs—such a 'rich' country, Russia,' he said. Upon returning home, Lapatin weighed just 52 kg, compared to his normal weight of 70 kg.
In May 2024, Lapatin was sent to Lithuania for rehabilitation, where he met with the Lithuanian president. 'I sleep three hours a night,' he noted, describing his condition after the traumatic experience. Human rights advocates have verified 186 locations where Russia holds Ukrainian prisoners, none of which are accessible to international observers.
Lapatin’s testimony exposes severe human rights violations and the horrific conditions faced by Ukrainian prisoners in Russia. These facts underscore the need for international scrutiny of human rights abuses in the context of the war in Ukraine. It is crucial for international organizations to gain access to detention sites to verify information and ensure prisoners' rights.
The harrowing experiences of Maksym Lapatin are not isolated; many captives have endured unimaginable suffering. For instance, another Ukrainian prisoner recounted a staggering 888 days of starvation and grueling 16-hour standing sessions. Such testimonies highlight the widespread brutality faced by those in captivity and underscore the urgent need for awareness of these atrocities. To read more about this particular case of endurance, visit the story of a Ukrainian captive's resilience.