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"I couldn't endure the last interrogation, which lasted 12 hours, while I was lying down." The story of Rasti, a member of the Azov Battalion
Source: Hromadske
Four months in Olenivka, a year in Taganrog, 45 days in the Donetsk pretrial detention center, and a year in Makiivka — behind these numbers and cities lie months of brutal interrogations, beatings, and torture endured by 25-year-old Azov fighter Dmytro, call sign Rasti.
“I’ve never been hit in the head as much in my entire life during training as I was in just 5 minutes at the ‘reception’ in Taganrog,” says the Azov fighter.
Dima was 20 when he joined Azov’s reconnaissance unit. To join the reconnaissance unit, Rasti passed one of the toughest physical fitness tests.
On February 24, like most Azov fighters, he was in Mariupol. At that time, his unit was serving as an anti-tank defense unit.
On April 15, Rasti ended up at Azovstal, and from there, he was taken prisoner for 2.5 years.
“My comrades and I became part of the small percentage of people on the planet who have gone through such an ordeal. Many people have completely reevaluated their lives after being held captive,” says Dmytro.
He is now actively training and recovering so he can return to the front lines soon.
“While I’m here in Kyiv, I constantly think of the guys who are still in captivity. Yesterday I was thinking about how people don’t appreciate the freedom they have. They only start to appreciate it after it’s taken away from them. Quite a few people don’t realize that everything can be taken away from them. And right now, the Russians are doing just that—seizing territory, killing thousands of people. Many soldiers who have been held captive are motivated to return to the front. It’s not just about defending the country and their loved ones; people have come to hate those Russians even more,” says Dima.
Watch the story of Rasti, a member of the Azov Regiment, in this hromadske video.
If you’d prefer to watch the video with subtitles in another language, go to YouTube Settings → Subtitles → Auto-translate and select the language you want.
Four months in Olenivka, a year in Taganrog, 45 days in the Donetsk pretrial detention center, and a year in Makiivka — behind these numbers and cities lie months of brutal interrogations, beatings, and torture endured by 25-year-old Azov fighter Dmytro, call sign Rasti.
“I’ve never been hit in the head as much in my entire life during training as I was in just 5 minutes at the ‘reception’ in Taganrog,” says the Azov fighter.
Dima was 20 when he joined Azov’s reconnaissance unit. To join the reconnaissance unit, Rasti passed one of the toughest physical fitness tests.
On February 24, like most Azov fighters, he was in Mariupol. At that time, his unit was serving as an anti-tank defense unit.
On April 15, Rasti ended up at Azovstal, and from there, he was taken prisoner for 2.5 years.
“My comrades and I became part of the small percentage of people on the planet who have gone through such an ordeal. Many people have completely reevaluated their lives after being held captive,” says Dmytro.
He is now actively training and recovering so he can return to the front lines soon.
“While I’m here in Kyiv, I constantly think of the guys who are still in captivity. Yesterday I was thinking about how people don’t appreciate the freedom they have. They only start to appreciate it after it’s taken away from them. Quite a few people don’t realize that everything can be taken away from them. And right now, the Russians are doing just that—seizing territory, killing thousands of people. Many soldiers who have been held captive are motivated to return to the front. It’s not just about defending the country and their loved ones; people have come to hate those Russians even more,” says Dima.
Watch the story of Rasti, a member of the Azov Regiment, in this hromadske video.
If you’d prefer to watch the video with subtitles in another language, go to YouTube Settings → Subtitles → Auto-translate and select the language you want.
This is an automatic translation generated by DeepL.