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Ukraine soldier's ordeal offers view into prisoner swaps

Ukrainian soldier Glib Stryzhko's mother knew he'd fallen into Russian hands but it wasn't until her gravely wounded 25-year-old son made a secret phone call to her that she found out where he was.

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'CRYING, AGAIN' When Stryzhko talked about his experience with his captors, a thread emerged of both indifference and a certain cruelty. He said the doctors mostly did their medical duties but there was a nurse who cursed him in Russian and left meals by his bedside, knowing he couldn't feed himself. "Then the nurse came back and said 'You're all done, then?' and took the food away," he said. He was constantly under guard in hospital, yet the guards themselves could be terrifying. He recounted how one ran a knife along his skin but never plunged it in, issuing the chilling threat: 'I would love to cut off your ear or to cut you like Ukrainians cut our prisoners'." What Stryzhko didn't know but would shortly learn was that his time in Russia would be brief. The ambulance taking him to Taganrog was in fact heading to an airport. Within hours he was in the air, with other wounded people and captives whose hands were tied and whose eyes were covered with duct tape.