A Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier in captivity at Wagner PMC had his arms amputated without stitches

Ilya Mikhalchuk, a military officer from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told The Washington Post about his stay in captivity of the Wagner PMC for 45 days. There he had both arms amputated without stitches, kept in the basement and subjected to psychological abuse.

Mikhalchuk said that he received wounds to his hands in February after his car came under fire. The soldier tied his hands with tourniquets and tried to get out, but Wagner militants grabbed him and shot him in the legs. When he was taken prisoner, he was treated cruelly: instead of tourniquets, his arms were tied with rubber tubes with very tight knots, which is why necrosis began on the second arm, which Mikhalchuk believed could still be saved. As a result, the Wagner PMC militants amputated both of his arms after many hours of interrogation. During interrogations, the military man often lost consciousness, but the Wagnerites injected him with an “unknown substance” so that he would not pass out.

In April, Mikhalchuk was traded. With the help of a consortium of military rehabilitation groups, he was transported to the United States for further treatment. He is now being treated in Washington by a company that provided prosthetic limbs for American veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Mikhalchuk was fitted with prosthetic arms.