The body of a soldier tortured in captivity was returned to Mykolaiv region: «Torn muscles and numerous injuries»

Ivan Makarov died in captivity of the Russian Federation on August 4, 2023. Photo: MIPL

In 2023, Russia returned the body of Ivan Makarov, a soldier of the 501st separate battalion of the Mykolaiv 36th brigade. The family managed to bury the husband only a year later.

This is stated in the material of the Media Organization for Human Rights.

The man went to military service in 2014. After two years of service, he was demobilized. He joined the army for the second time when Russia began a full-scale invasion.

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He started serving in the 36th brigade, and then he was transferred to the 501st separate battalion of marines, where he ended up in Mariupol.

«Somehow it so happened that all of our mobile phones broke, so Ivan left without communication. We didn't know anything at all: where he was, what was happening,» says Anastasia Nechyporenko, the sister of the deceased.

More than 250 soldiers of the battalion were captured by the Russians on April 4, 2022. The order to surrender to the military was given by brigade commander Mykola Biriukov and his deputy Kostiantyn Bezsmertnyi. Russian mass media loudly announced at the time that almost 300 Ukrainian soldiers had voluntarily surrendered.

Battalion commander Mykola Biriukov leads the first group of soldiers into captivity to the Russians. Screenshot from the Russian mass media video

Other groups of soldiers of the 501st battalion were led by Kostiantyn Bezsmertnyi. Screenshot from the Russian mass media video

After leaving Mariupol, Biriukov explained this decision to Russians in an interview with «the desire to save more lives.» Today, the commander of the brigade is in captivity, and the Immortal is considered missing.

Makarov, like the majority of those captured by the occupiers, was taken to the colony in Olenivka. This is the last official location of the Mykolaiv military.

It is not known where the man died. Russia handed over his body to Ukraine in 2023. The official version of death: heart failure and cachexia, that is, significant exhaustion of the body. But relatives say that the man was tortured. There were numerous injuries and hematomas on the body.

«He had torn muscles, a dent in the skull, an injured nose,» the woman lists the injuries she saw on her brother's body during the identification. What shocked her the most was the brand: a triangle with an eye inside, cut out above Ivan's heart, the MIPL quotes the woman.

It was possible to bury Ivan Makarov only on July 19, 2024 in the village of Dmytrivka in the Mykolaiv region.