00:00If I refused to admit this, I was electrocuted.
00:03I was being treated harsher than other POWs.
00:07When my cellmates and I were escorted to a shower, I was the only one with handcuffs
00:13on my wrists.
00:14During daily security checks, 1,183 days in Russian captivity as a prisoner of war.
00:21I was born in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol to a Ukrainian mother and Cuban father.
00:26As a result, I inherited a very unusual for Slavic country's Latino name.
00:31For a few years, I attended college in the United States, but in the fourth year of the
00:36Russian war on Ukraine, back in 2018, I returned to Ukraine to defend my country from the occupation.
00:43With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, I was already on the front line on the outskirts
00:47of Mariupol.
00:48For three months, I witnessed how Russian forces were wiping down residential blocks from my
00:53hometown, using civilians as a life shield, killing hundreds of men, women, children,
01:00elderly.
01:02Eventually, together with other Ukrainian servicemen, I defended the famous Azovstal steel plant.
01:09Our surrender was a result of international negotiations.
01:13We were giving assurances that the defenders of Azovstal would be treated in accordance with
01:17international humanitarian law and prioritized in prisoner exchanges.
01:22What follows was very different.
01:25More than 2,400 people were placed in overcrowded barracks without adequate conditions.
01:30There was almost no water and extremely little food.
01:35It came to a point when almost all POWs were ill with dysentery.
01:39Many were starving, having an extreme weight loss, collapsing multiple times during a day.
01:45When I was later transferred to occupied Luhansk region, another aspect of Russian captivity
01:51became clear to me.
01:53Prejudice based on nationality and ethnicity.
01:56My Spanish name caused many Russian authorities to suspect me of being a mercenary.
02:02They could not comprehend that Ukrainians could be of inter-ethnic heritage without losing
02:07Ukrainian identity.
02:09That meant that their narrative of Ukraine as a Nazi state is collapsing in front of them.
02:15Russian prison and investigative officials were pursuing the goal of making me confess
02:20to being a foreign mercenary.
02:23I would be more humiliated than the others, escorted to private interrogations and beaten up with
02:28batons.
02:29I was well-known in my brigade for my skills as a specialist, so I was already their target
02:34even before getting into captivity.
02:37After a year and six months, they transferred me to the famous detention center No. 2 in
02:42the city of Tahanrok, where I immediately faced brutal treatment because of my name and ethnicity.
02:48Non-Slavic name was a big red flag for the captors and meant that they got to show particular
02:53hatred.
02:54After my arrival, I was told to sweep down naked and was being beaten up every single
03:00second in every place in my body.
03:02On the same day, I was escorted to a separate interrogation courtyard in the jail, tortured,
03:07beaten up by three prison guards with fists and batons.
03:10They accused me of being a mercenary and an American spy because of my college years spent
03:15in the USA.
03:17After I refused to admit this, I was electrocuted.
03:21I was being treated harsher than other POWs.
03:25When my cellmates and I were escorted to a shower, I was the only one with handcuffs on
03:31my wrists.
03:32During daily security checks, I was being beaten up more, not only for being a Ukrainian Marine,
03:38not only for being a drone specialist or being another stealth defender, but mainly because
03:42of my Latino name and my Cuban background.
03:45Russians were outraged that someone with a connection to Cuba, whom they perceive as
03:49an ally, would fight against their occupational army.
03:54Here is a picture from a blackmail video that was sent to my father, my Cuban father, from
03:59the FSB.
04:01I was approximately 52 kilograms here.
04:05I have been living like this for nine months.
04:09This has been also happening for almost a year during my stay at the next location in the
04:14detention center number three in the city of Kiziel.
04:16For three years and three months in Russian captivity, I've never had a chance to speak
04:22to my family.
04:23It is fair to point out that such prejudice existed not only towards me, but to any people
04:28who were standing out from the crowd.
04:29In the city of Tahanroh, Russians have killed during interrogation a citizen of Poland.
04:35Also they were holding in solitary cells and tortured citizens of Georgia and Belarus.
04:41Other countries as well.
04:43Some Russian citizens who were held in suspicion of sympathies for Ukraine were also treated
04:49the same as us.
04:51Almost all Ukrainians who were held in detention center number two in Tahanroh were exposed to
04:56torture through freezing, beatings and electrocution, verbal, physical and sexual abuse.
05:02Russians were tying POWs, locking them in handcuffs and carrying out sexual violence with foreign
05:08objects.
05:09The goal was to break their mental state and forced to confess to falsified crimes.
05:14Similar prejudice and hatred were expressed over citizens of Belarus and Georgia who were
05:18held in detention center number three in the city of Kiziel.
05:20And this is how I looked the day I returned back home.
05:25I was 55 kilograms in this picture.
05:30This experience shows that no one is protected from Russian captivity.
05:33People can be easily executed, killed during interrogations, starved, beaten up to death,
05:40transferred to an unknown location, sentenced for a fake crime.
05:45Russian captivity kills everyone at every step at any level.
05:48There is no immunity, no passport that can protect from being tortured and killed.
05:53I address this issue to you, honorable speakers and representatives, because it is in your power
05:57to protect international law and counter these crimes, to maintain the international humanitarian
06:03law.
06:04Thank you all for this opportunity to speak and for your attention and I wish you every success
06:08in this fair fight for justice.
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