Many Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Mariupol, but survivors faced further hell in brutal Russian captivity

• Russia's months-long siege and bombardment of Mariupol saw the city reduced to rubble.
• Interviews with two Ukrainians — a soldier and the mother of two soldiers — revealed scenes of intense combat.

Mass graves, bodies of civilians strewn in the streets, buildings reduced entirely to rubble, and Ukrainian soldiers fighting to the bitter end, often giving the last full measure, as Russia strangled the life out of a city that was once full.

Tragic, grisly scenes emerged from Mariupol, the southern Ukrainian city that spent months living through a Russian siege and later occupation, after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukrainian forces fought fiercely for the city but were unable to hold onto it.

Many troops who fought to save Mariupol returned home permanently scarred while others never came home at all.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted the strategic port city along the Sea of Azov, which had a pre-war population of nearly 450,000 people, so he could establish a land bridge that would connect the occupied Crimean peninsula with Moscow-held territory in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

The battle for Mariupol was intense and bloody. Russian forces encircled the city and relentlessly bombed it. Ukrainian officials say tens of thousands of people were killed, but Mariupol's actual death toll remains unknown. Investigators who have looked into reported atrocities have accused Moscow of committing war crimes such as deliberate attacks on civilians.

The Ukrainian defenders made their last stand at Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant, where they spent weeks holed up with civilians as the Russians tightened their grip on the city. But by mid-May, with much of the urban landscape left in ruins, Kyiv surrendered to Moscow.

In two recent interviews, Business Insider spoke separately with a Ukrainian soldier who was severely wounded in Mariupol and spent over a year in Russian captivity and the mother of two Ukrainian men who fought in the city. One of her sons was killed there while the other was captured and is still being held today.

Speaking through a translator, the soldier and the mother described intense combat during the fight for Mariupol and horrific conditions at a Russian prison camp where a deadly explosion occurred last year that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

"They tried, actually, to wipe Mariupol and to wipe our people from the surface of the earth. Their goal was to break our will — to break our resilience," said Tetiana, the Ukrainian mother whose surname has been intentionally withheld. "And they did everything possible in order to achieve that goal."

The Russians didn't want to 'give me back'

Oleksandr Didur was serving with Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade near Mariupol in positions between the city and advancing Russian forces when Russia's full-scale invasion began. As part of an air-defense unit, his combat missions involved protecting infantry from airborne threats.

"We didn't really feel the beginning of the war," Oleksandr said, but that quickly changed. "The Russians started attacking the civilians, which was really scary." He said that "they started bombarding civilian places," explaining that it was like "the sky was on fire."

Instructions eventually came to retreat to positions closer to Mariupol; the infantrymen went first, and Oleksandr's unit followed them. Everyone knew the war had started, but it wasn't clear where, exactly, the Russian troops were located. It took a few days, but Oleksandr and his fellow soldiers eventually reached the city.

Oleksandr was involved in heavy fighting in Mariupol, engaging in air defense as the Russians approached the city. Ukraine put up a fight, but the Russians managed to surround the city. As for Oleksandr, he found himself holding a perimeter with a dwindling supply of ammunition and without any reinforcements coming. Holding the line in Mariupol, he witnessed Moscow's forces shell and bomb civilian structures, acts which he described as "shocking."

Every day, heavy Russian armor moved closer to his position; Moscow's tanks would move with caution at first, but they soon realized that the Ukrainians didn't have enough ammunition because they weren't striking back.

"All we had was just rifles, some hand grenades, and machine guns," Oleksandr said. "It's nothing against heavy weaponry like tanks," he continued, explaining that that they "did not have any anti-tank weapons to fight against the Russians."

And then, amid the fighting, tragedy struck on April 6, 2022. Oleksandr didn't even see or hear the enemy tank fire at him, but next thing he knew, a shell exploded against the wall right next to him. He lost consciousness and when he woke up a little over a week later, he was in Russian captivity.

The tank blast left Oleksandr with severe wounds that are still causing problems today because they never really healed properly. Shrapnel flew into his body, entering his head, an eye socket, a leg, and an arm. His other arm was fractured, and he lost several fingers on one of his hands, too.

Oleksandr later found out that after the blast that nearly killed him, he was taken to a bunker to receive urgent, life-saving medical attention, and at some point later, he ended up at Azovstal. His unit kept fighting there, but they surrendered women and heavily wounded people to the Russians in a bid to keep them all alive. Many soldiers were killed at Azovstal, and those who survived also ended up in Russian captivity. The troops at Azovstal became beacons of the Ukrainian resistance, still fighting even as all hope seemed lost, but in the end, these defenders were forced to surrender in May 2022.

When Oleksandr eventually regained consciousness, he couldn't see anything, but he could hear people speaking Russian and Chechen, the language spoken by the band of fighters led by the warlord Ramzan Kadyrov that had joined Moscow's war machine. After a week, Oleksandr was taken to a hospital in eastern Ukraine's occupied Donetsk region, where he spent about a month receiving limited medical assistance, noticeably less than what was needed given the severity of his wounds.

In late May, he was transferred to a prison in Olenivka that held Ukrainians. Oleksandr said he witnessed horrific treatment by the Russian captors, who beat, tortured, and interrogated detainees. Because he was so heavily injured, though, he largely managed to avoid physical abuse there.

"They could actually have killed and beaten people to death," he said. "Such cases happened."

The food was also "abysmal" and the portions were tiny. Breakfast usually consisted of cereal, lunch featured watery soup, and dinner was once again cereal. If he was lucky, he would occasionally get a few pieces of fish or potato.

On July 29, an explosion ripped through the prison, killing around 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war and injuring 100 more. Russia claimed that the devastation was caused by a US-provided weapon, specifically rocket artillery, fired by Kyiv's forces, but a United Nations investigation later discredited Moscow's assertions. Oleksandr said the blast happened from inside the facility and was done on purpose by the Russians.

After the explosion, Oleksandr said prisoners were dispersed and he was taken to another correctional facility near the city of Donetsk. The food was better there, he recalled, but there was still lots of beatings, abuse, and intimidation. Just looking at a Russian guard in the wrong way could earn some sort of physical retribution, Oleksandr said.

It wasn't until almost a year later, in early July 2023, that Oleksandr was released unexpectedly as part of a prisoner exchange. Much to his surprise, he was told to pack his belongings and made to sit in a pit before having a sack placed over his head. He was then loaded into a car and, while blindfolded, driven several hours to an airport where he was finally released.

"At first, it was very difficult to believe that you could be finally released," Oleksandr said. "The Russians didn't want to actually give me back to the Ukrainian side." He added that while he feels fortunate to have been included in the prisoner exchange, many of his fellow soldiers were not so lucky and remain in captivity.

'They couldn't stay on the sidelines'

Tetiana's two sons wanted to fight to defend Ukraine even before the full-scale invasion.

In 2015, her eldest son, Bohdan, joined the Azov Regiment, and her younger son, Oleh, joined the brigade in 2018. At that time, Ukraine was fighting a grinding — albeit much smaller — war against Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region in a conflict ignited by Russia's 2014 invasion and subsequent seizure of Crimea.

Not long after the February 2022 invasion, both sons found themselves in Mariupol defending the city from the quickly advancing Russian army. Their families had been shipped off to safety elsewhere in Ukraine.

"It wasn't my intention to raise my sons to go to the war, because they grew up in a peaceful country," Tetiana said. "But when the war started — when this tragedy started — they couldn't just stay complacent. They couldn't stay on the sidelines. And it was the informed decision. They made this decision to choose the path of a military serviceman and to defend their country."

They fought hard battles in the streets and braved intense shelling, as Russia tightened the noose around the city's throat — cutting off the flow of ammunition, medical supplies, and food to Ukrainians.

By mid-April, the two sons were still alive and fighting from Azovstal. But later that same month, Bohdan was killed by Russian shelling during a mission. The shrapnel killed him instantly.

Bohdan, Tetiana said, "was a very brave, young man who was happy to defend and was very much committed to the defense of Ukraine."

"He never hid behind the backs of his fellow soldiers," she added.

Oleh remained at the steel plant, which continued to suffer brutal and relentless attacks over the next few weeks. But with hundreds of people holed up at the facility and many in dire need of medical assistance, the Ukrainians were ultimately forced to surrender to the Russians on May 18, 2022.

"They bravely defended Mariupol and Azovstal, and they did not want to give up," Tetiana said of the Ukrainians who fought in the city. "They did everything they could, and they did not want to surrender."

Oleh was transferred into Russian captivity and was sent from Mariupol to the same Olenivka prison where Oleksandr was being held at the time. Then came the explosion in late July.

Oleh was in the barracks where the explosion occurred — it was a cramped space he shared with nearly 200 Azov soldiers. The devastating blast caused a fire that burned many people alive and sent shrapnel and debris everywhere, Tetiana said. The prisoners used their own shirts to stop wounds from bleeding because it would take hour for more substantial medical assistance to arrive.

"Without medical assistance, many people bled to death because you couldn't just stop blood in the way you wanted to stop it," Tetiana said. "There were flows of blood near those barracks."

Not knowing if her son was alive or not, Tetiana eventually saw Oleh during an interview with Russian media shortly after the Olenivka explosion. His fellow prisoners had saved his life by evacuating him from the building after the blast, and he revealed in the interview that he had suffered a leg injury. Tetiana noticed that her son had lost a ton of weight.

Oleh was taken to a hospital, where he stayed until the end of May 2023, when he was transferred to a Russian prison camp at an unknown location. Tetiana has not been able to get in touch with her son, nor does she know anything about his medical condition. For a while, the only flow of information came through Ukrainian prisoners who were exchanged.

At the end of July, however, she received a call from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which said Russia had confirmed to the organization that Oleh was in captivity. But since then, there's been no word on his situation.

'It's a real miracle'

Both Oleksandr and Tetiana have received help from The Heart of Azovstal, a program that provides support to soldiers who defended Mariupol and the families of those who were killed or captured there. Areas of assistance include rehabilitation and psychological treatment, helping with a transition to civilian life, and securing government benefits.

The program covered the cost of Oleksandr's surgery and has helped with his physical and mental rehabilitation. It also purchased an apartment in Kyiv for the young veteran, who is married with two small children.

"It's a real miracle, really, because what this organization is doing — it's helping people and it gives them hope and inspiration," Oleksandr said.

For Tetiana, The Heart of Azovstal helped her with some psychological relief for all the trauma she's endured during the war. It's allowed her to improve both her physical and emotional wellbeing.

On the battlefield, the war continues to grind on with little change to the front lines, even as blood continues to be spilled. Casualties continue to mount on both sides, with Ukrainian civilians braving another winter of Russian missile and drone attacks on critical infrastructure.

The war seems to have no immediate end in sight, and fears are mounting that Western military aid — particularly from the US — may be in jeopardy.

"We are just a small country, but we are very strong in our spirit. We want to be independent. We want to have our own choice. And we will survive, and we will be able to withstand the enemy, but we just need the world's support," Tetiana said. "Please don't allow Ukraine to fall."