Convict's Odyssey-styled Odyssey Towards Liberty: A Lengthy Saga of Crime, Punishment, and Further Penalty in Ukraine
In a contemporary twist of Homer's Odyssey, Yegor — a modern-day Odysseus — recounts his harrowing journey to reclaim his home, thus debunking the mythology of his long travels. Sheltered in Tbilisi, Georgia, he recalls the harrowing tale of being unjustly victimized amidst the turmoil of a war and the agonizing torment that followed his imprisonment.
After being caught in a carjacking incident in 2019, Yegor was convicted by a Ukrainian court in the Vinnitsa region and sentenced to serve a four-year term in Mykolaiv prison. The onset of the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2021, however, set the stage for his true ordeal.
The prison displayed no usual characteristics until it fell under Russian control. Stranded without guard protection when the area came under relentless shelling, Yegor and his fellow inmates endured multiple missile attacks without water or electricity supplies. Their food, though limited, left them uncertain of their future as they awaited an uncertain rescue or, perhaps, death.
The Mykolaiv facility was one of 11 prisons that surrendered to Russian forces in the initial weeks of the war. With Ukrainian authorities yet to establish clear guidance for dealing with convicts ensnared in the war zone, the prisoners were abandoned. According to an investigation conducted by Dignity, a Danish international human rights organization, no prisoners in the area were evacuated.
Under international humanitarian law, Russia was responsible for the treatment of prisoners within its occupied territories. All prisoners were promptly transferred to Kherson, which had been seized by Russia in early March 2022. The inmates spent relatively uneventful months in Kherson until the region succumbed to a Ukrainian counterattack.
Shortly before Ukraine regained control of the city in November 2022, Russian forces forcibly removed approximately 1,600 Ukrainian prisoners, including Yegor, and relocated them to prisons inside Russia in violation of international law.
Now 57 years old, Yegor spent time in prisons in Rostov and Volgograd. The Ukrainian convicts were segregated from their Russian counterparts. Forced to endure backbreaking labor, Yegor worked 12-hour days maintaining the sewers, earning a scant income. Occasionally, he and his fellow Ukrainian inmates begged for cigarettes from the Russian prisoners.
Although guards never physically abused Yegor, who suffered from tuberculosis, he conceded that he heard about incidents of violence against other Ukrainian prisoners. "All I can say is, I was lucky," Yegor admitted, a career criminal who has served a total term of 24 years out of prison.
Investigators from Dignity concurred with Yegor's assessment, corroborating reports of routine violence, including beatings, electric shocks, and other forms of torture, inflicted upon Ukrainian convicts in Russian prisons.
When Yegor's four-year sentence was completed, Russian officials adhered meticulously to the Ukrainian sentence and released him. However, gaining freedom came with complexities.
Given the ongoing warfare, forcibly deported Ukrainian ex-cons found it impossible to return directly to their homes. Instead, most deceitfully navigated the journey to their homeland via Georgia. Released prisoners were simply abandoned at the Russian-Georgian border by Russian authorities, leaving them to their fate as they struggled to make their way back home.
Due to the chaos, some Ukrainian ex-cons found themselves stranded at the border without identity documentation — whether it was deliberately confiscated or lost during their ordeal. In such cases, these individuals faced weeks of uncertainty in the buffer zone while Ukrainian diplomats in Tbilisi confirmed their identities.
When interviewed in Tbilisi, Yegor appeared guarded, but his eyes sparkled with fervor when he spoke of home. "I was one of the fortunate few," he said. "I managed to keep my passport with me, and I can finally return home."
- Yegor's long journey of reclaiming his home, as he recounts in a modern-day Odyssey, was marked by more than just travels, but also a harrowing experience of being unjustly victimized amidst war, imprisonment, and the hardships that followed.
- After being convicted and sentenced to serve a four-year term in Mykolaiv prison, Yegor's life took a drastic turn with the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2021, leading to his true ordeal.
- During his time in Mykolaiv prison, Yegor faced unfavorable conditions, including limited food, lack of water and electricity, and the constant threat of missile attacks, all while awaiting an uncertain rescue or death.
- Once Yegor and other Ukrainian prisoners were forcibly removed and relocated to prisons inside Russia, they faced additional hardships, such as forced labor, segregation, and reported incidents of violence, in violation of international law.
