Azov Brigade Soldier Serhii Tarasiuk Gets Tuberculosis in Russian Captivity: His Condition is Critical
A random photo on social networks allowed Serhii Tarasiuk’s wife to find out the terrible truth about her husband who is kept in captivity. He has been held in inhumane conditions for over two years. The 58-year-old Azov Brigade soldier’s state of health is critical. According to the latest information, Serhii Tarasiuk is kept in Pretrial Detention Center No. 2 in the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd Oblast.
He joined the army without telling his wife
Liudmyla and Serhii have been married for more than 30 years. They even have a common alive day: when they were students, they were struck by lightning on one of their dates. That day Serhii experienced clinical death, and Liudmyla got 30% burns.
The couple lived in Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, but 2014 brought war into their lives. Horlivka, Liudmyla’s hometown, was occupied at once, Avdiivka found itself on the demarcation line. Then Serhii said that he would go to war.
“I told him that I would not let him go, and now I am ashamed of it,” Liudmyla Tarasiuk says. “He was offended by my words. He said, “I will go anyway. You are so patriotic, but you don’t want me to go to war! Who will defend our country if all women keep their men at home?”
Serhii joined the army without telling his wife. While he was doing training, Liudmyla thought that her husband was working in Kyiv together with his friend. One day he came home, and the woman found a T-shirt among his things. It looked like a military one:
“He said that the military had given him one as a gift when they did repairs at their base. That was when my first suspicions arose.”
Serhii Tarasiuk, the Azov Brigade soldier. Photo: family archive
Serhii Tarasiuk joined the Azov Brigade. As he later told Liudmyla, it was the only unit that agreed to admit him, a 45-year-old man. Since then, her husband had been defending the outskirts of Mariupol.
“Many of his friends died at that time. Sometimes he showed me photos of him with his fellow soldiers and said, “This one is no longer alive, this one too.”
Shortly before the full-scale invasion, Serhii told his wife that he was thinking about leaving the army. Liudmyla was happy because her husband had problems with his heart and blood pressure. Besides, they spent too little time together because of his military service. At the beginning of 2022, Serhii promised that he would retire in the spring, but a full-scale war began.
For a long time, his wife did not know where Serhii was. During the first few weeks, he called every day, but over time, the connection began to disappear. Then Liudmyla realized that Serhii was in Mariupol. The last time they talked was in May. Her husband told her not to ask any questions.
“Before, when he had days off, he would tell me that he had gone to Mariupol to visit friends and had bought sausages there, because there were no tasty ones sold in the stores near their base. The last time we talked, he didn’t tell me anything. And I asked, “Are you there where you went to buy sausages?” But he didn’t answer. Before that he tried to joke occasionally for several weeks, but he was no longer in the mood,” says the wife of the Azov Brigade member.
Ukrainian soldiers stopped defending Mariupol after 86 days of resistance. Serhii Tarasiuk left the Azovstal plant on May 17, 2022. His family recognized him in one of the videos. He was walking, with a stick to lean on, and his fellow soldier was carrying his things. Liudmyla does not know what injuries her husband received in defending the city. She was only told that he had fragments in his body, which damaged ligaments in his legs, and he limped.
Liudmyla recognized her husband Serhii in this frame from a propaganda story about Ukrainian soldiers leaving Azovstal
Shocking truth about captivity
While in Olenivka, where prisoners of war from Mariupol were put by Russian authorities, Serhii sometimes called his wife on the phone. Their conversations lasted no more than a minute. He talked little about himself. Together with other families of prisoners of war, Liudmyla went to Geneva to visit the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross. However, ICRC representatives informed her that they had no other information except for the fact of captivity.
On the morning of July 29, 2022, Russian telegram channels reported an explosion in one of the barracks within the territory of the Olenivka Penal Colony. In the evening, it turned out that there had been only Azov Brigade members there.
Liudmyla reviewed the lists of captive Azov Brigade soldiers published by the Russian Defense Ministry, who had been allegedly in the barracks. Serhii’s surname was not among them. And already in September, a short message “+” came from Serhii, meaning he was OK.
Some time later, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War informed his wife that many captives from Olenivka had been transferred to Pre-Trial Detention Center No. 2 in Taganrog, Rostov Oblast. There has been little information about Serhii Tarasiuk since then. The soldiers released as a result of exchanges said only, “We heard his surname at roll calls. He is holding up.”
“Nobody said anything about Serhii’s health. Both those who had been released and Coordination Headquarters officers told me that he was holding up,” says Liudmyla. “This can be understood in different ways. Even those who are dying are holding up.”
On September 13 and 14, 2024, POW exchanges took place. As a result, a total of 152 people returned home. For the first time in a long time, Azov Brigade members were exchanged (the last time they were exchanged was May 6, 2023). Among those released were soldiers who had been held for some time in the same cell with Serhii Tarasiuk. His wife was shocked by the information she was given.
“First, they tried to find me in a general group of families of Azovstal defenders, and then an unknown number sent a photo of two people. One of them was my Serhii. I immediately called that person. It was the wife of my husband’s fellow soldier,” says Liudmyla Tarasiuk.
Serhii Tarasiuk (on the left) together with his fellow soldier. Photo: family archive
This photo made the woman very happy, so she sent it to another group of families to share her joy. This is how the Azov Brigade soldier who was released on September 14 saw this photo.
“His wife and I had been in touch for two years and didn’t even know that our husbands had been friends,” says Liudmyla. It turned out that he had been kept in the Olenivka Penal Colony together with Serhii Tarasyuk. And they had been held in the very barracks where the explosion occurred.
“But on that same day, that man was taken away and transferred to the Donetsk pre-trial detention center, and my Serhii remained there. This is how I first learned that my husband had been in the blown-up barracks,” says Liudmyla.
On the night of the explosion there were 193 Azov Brigade soldiers in the barracks. This information was later confirmed by the victims who were released from captivity. The Russian Ministry of Defense immediately published the lists: 40 dead (in fact, more than 50 Azov Brigade soldiers died) and 73 wounded prisoners. The names of the rest of the Azov Brigade members were unknown. The survivors and those who were later exchanged said that not all wounded prisoners had been taken to hospital. Those who received minor injuries were transferred to a punitive segregation unit on the premises of the colony, so they were not on any list.
When time is your enemy
The news about Serhii was not the last thing that shocked Liudmyla.
“Earlier, when I talked to released soldiers who saw Serhii in captivity, no one described his health in detail. So I hoped that things were relatively good with him,” says the wife of the prisoner of war. “And then another released soldier, who had been together with Serhii in a prison in Russia, said that he would tell the pure truth.”
Serhii Tarasiuk appeared to have contracted tuberculosis in captivity. In addition, he has rapidly progressing psoriasis and suffers from tooth problems. The man also has difficulty eating. He has lost a lot of weight because of the meager food ration. Former prisoners say that it was painful even for them to look at him: he was all skin and bone.
“Moreover, he has back problems. This guy told me that when they take prisoners somewhere, they make them bend down very low. And Serhii is as tall as 1.86 m. It is hard for him. If you fail to obey, they beat you. Everyone who told me about Serhii talked with respect for him. It is very satisfying. They are young, and Serhii is already old. He helped them, gave advice,” says the woman. “And I am terribly concerned about the state of his health.”
More than two years of Russian captivity also had a negative impact on Serhii Tarasiuk’s mental health. Eventually, according to the released man, Serhii was transferred to a cell where prisoners with tuberculosis are kept.
“Serhii is very exhausted. They put him on IV drips, but this is not an proper medical treatment. He is already 58 years old. Before captivity, he had many illnesses, and in captivity, he developed new ones. The released man stressed that he was in a very bad condition and should be freed.
With this information in mind, Liudmyla tries to pull herself together. She still cannot hold back her tears when she talks about her husband. Despite this, the woman continues to fight for Serhii. She understands that his biggest enemy is time.
