WASHINGTON (AP) – A volunteer Ukrainian doctor held captive for three months by Russian forces in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol told U.S. lawmakers Thursday that he hugged and comforted colleagues as they died of torture and poorly treated wounds.
Ukrainian Yuliia Paievska, who was arrested by pro-Russian forces in Mariupol in March and held in changing locations on territory of Russia’s allies in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, spoke to lawmakers with the Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe, better known as the Helsinki Commission, a government agency created in part to promote international compliance with human rights.
Her accounts on Thursday were the most detailed publicly of her treatment in captivity, in what Ukrainians and international rights groups say are widespread arrests of both Ukrainian non-combatants and combatants by Russian forces.
Known to Ukrainians as Taira, Paievska and her care of Mariupol’s wounded during the nearly seven-month Russian invasion of Ukraine gained global attention after her body camera footage was provided to The Associated Press.
“Do you know why we do this to you?”  a Russian asked Payevska as he tortured her, she told the commission.  She told the panel her answer: “Because you can.”
Scorching descriptions of the plight of the prisoners poured forth.  A 7-year-old boy died in her arms because she had none of the medical equipment needed to treat him, she said.
The torture sessions usually began with their captors forcing the Ukrainian detainees to remove their clothes, before the Russians began to bleed and torture the detainees, he said.
The result was some “detainees in the cells screaming for weeks and then dying of torture without medical help,” he said.  “Then in this torment of hell, the only things they feel before death are abuse and extra beating.”
He continued, telling the tally among the imprisoned Ukrainians.  “My friend that I closed my eyes before his body got cold.  Another friend.  And another one.  Other.”
Pajewska said she was taken into custody after a routine document check.  She was one of thousands of Ukrainians believed to have been captured by Russian forces.  The mayor of Mariupol said 10,000 people from his city alone disappeared during the months-long Russian siege of that city.  It fell to the Russians in April, with the city devastated by Russian shelling and countless dead.
The Geneva Conventions single out doctors, both military and civilian, for protection “in all circumstances.”  Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland and co-chairman of the Helsinki Commission, emphasized that the conditions he described for civilians and military prisoners violate international law.
Spokesman Joe Wilson, RSC, called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.
“It is critical that the world hear the stories of those who endured the worst in captivity,” Wilson said.  “The evidence is essential to the prosecution of war crimes.”
Before she was arrested, Paievska had recorded more than 256 gigabytes of harrowing body camera footage showing her team’s efforts to rescue the injured in the remote town.  He got the video to Associated Press reporters, the last international team in Mariupol, on a tiny data card.
The journalists left the city on March 15 with the card embedded in a tampon, taking it through 15 Russian checkpoints.  The next day, Paievska was captured by pro-Russian forces.  Lawmakers played the AP video of her on Thursday.
She appeared on June 17, gaunt and tired, her athlete’s body more than 10 kilograms (22 lb) lighter from lack of food and activity.  She said the AP report showing her caring for Russian and Ukrainian soldiers alike, along with Mariupol civilians, was critical to her release in a prisoner exchange.
Paievska had previously refused to speak to reporters in detail about detention conditions, only describing them generally as hell.  He drank heavily at times Thursday while testifying.
Ukraine’s government says it has documented nearly 34,000 Russian war crimes since the war began in February.  The International Criminal Court and 14 European Union member states have also launched investigations.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says it has documented that prisoners of war in Russian custody have suffered torture and ill-treatment, as well as inadequate food, water and health care and sanitation.
Russia has not responded to the allegations.  Both the United Nations and the International Red Cross say they have been denied access to detainees.
Pajewska, who said she suffered headaches during her detention as a result of concussion from an earlier blast, told lawmakers she asked her captors to let her call her husband to let him know what happened.
“They said, ‘You’ve seen too many American movies.  There will be no phone call,” he said.
Her torturers during her detention sometimes urged her to kill herself, she said.
“I said no.  I’ll see what happens tomorrow,” he said.
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Lori Hinnant contributed to this report from Paris.