Media about the Ministry of Internal Affairs: the story of a policeman from Mariupol, who was captured and became fit again
Police service during the Mariupol bombings, the deadly crossing to Azovstal, captivity and more than 9 months of hell — first in Olenovka, then in a Russian prison. All this is about the policeman Boris Kolesnikov with whom the journalists of “Hromadske” talked in more detail.
Currently, Boris works as a patrol police officer in Lviv.
When Mariupol was first occupied by pro-Russian militants in 2014, Boris was 20 years old. Young, but already with a clear position: he was part of the football ultras, which were a kind of center of patriotic youth. When the militants captured Mariupol in the spring, the guys were partisans: they collected information about the enemies and reported to the security authorities.
In June, the Ukrainian Defense Forces recaptured the city. And in the fall, students from the fan community decided to join Azov — then a special purpose battalion under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
“The motivation was simple — to defend our country. Then it was the Ilovai boiler... “Azov” was chosen primarily for its ideology. All our “gang” fell into one platoon. Unfortunately, not everyone is alive,” says the policeman.
The guy, who previously did not hold a weapon in his hands, went through an accelerated course as a young fighter. Then there was neither time nor sufficient resources:
“Everyone remembers 2014: in flip flops, in jeans and with a vending machine,” Borys recalls. And adds that in “Azov” training always continues.
Next is the battle path. Marinka, Granitnoe, Shyrokyne in Donetsk region. The latter was the hardest during the offensive. Then, says Boris, he first felt what artillery strikes were like.
In total, the guy then served almost 3 years.
Boris Kolesnikov met a full-scale invasion in Mariupol — as a policeman, in the ranks of a newly formed joint detachment. During the chaos and shelling, they tried to fulfill their duties: to maintain public order, to prevent looting, to be the “eyes” of the military in tracking Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups, to evacuate the wounded. He managed to survive by a miracle.
“Arrivals were daily. I remember, my partner Sergey Mikhailovich and I went to collect a solarium from a barrel to refuel the car. Suddenly we hear a whistle... It was the arrival of “hail”. We were saved by the fence. “Hail” was beaten simply by a crowd of people. Even when many civilians gathered under the office of one of the operators, where it was still possible to catch the network. My partner and I were then rescued by an armored car — we managed to pick up the seriously injured and take them to the hospital, which was still working at the time,” Borys says.
Boris Kolesnikov describes the breakthrough on “Azovstal” as the most difficult thing he had to experience in his life. Once fully surrounded, it was necessary to drive about 12 kilometers through the occupied city to the plant. Moving in a column. Boris and his partner were in a passenger car.
“It was like a shooting range, a kind of “safari” — everything flew at us. Although already in the area of “Azovstal” I was lucky to pass through the bridge before the Russians destroyed it. Who was so unlucky - they swam as much as they could: someone on pallets, someone dived and no longer jumped out... It was chaos,” the man recalls.
Boris Kolesnikov joined the defense at Azovstal since mid-April. At first, the police guarded the bunker “Dzherelo” - so that the enemy DRG would not crawl through, because there were many “holes” in the plant. Then they entered combat positions together with the military, their forces for defense were not enough. There were hundreds of injured:
“We really fought beyond the limits of human capabilities. We fought like those 300 Spartans, with all the cauldron they threw at our destruction. The Russians for Mariupol were washed with blood.”
Captivity for Boris was not an option: he says he would rather shoot himself. However, the high confidence in the command took the upper hand over the pride.
After leaving Azovstal on May 16, Ukrainian prisoners were transported by buses almost 100 km away — to a small, broken and abandoned prison in Olenivka in the Donetsk region, which the occupiers had been deconstructing the day before. More than 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers were stationed in five barracks.
“Azov” is separate from the rest. According to Boris, Russians have a particularly inhuman attitude towards them. For interrogations and torture, there was a separate building there — DIZO.
Every day in captivity was the same: the rise at 6 o'clock, the inspection, the singing of the Russian anthem, lunch, dinner, inspection again. During the inspection, the prisoners had to sit in a crouch until they passed 5 barracks. In particular, when a high-ranking Russian supervisor arrived. Hands behind the back, the back is straight, the head is bent, it is impossible to change the position of the legs, although they are numb and drooping.
Read more about the story of the policeman from Mariupol at the link.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
