Indescribable horror of ruZZian captivity

Professor Roman Sheremeta

Jan 13, 2026

A hood over her head and beatings with batons. A ban on movement from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Rags instead of sanitary pads. Threats to “send home only her bones.”

The russians took her captive less than a month after she gave birth. When she returned, she learned that her husband had been killed at the front.

This is the story of Inna Semegen, who survived Olenivka.

On February 24, 2022, Inna was driving around the city trying to withdraw cash. Her husband, Valentyn, who had been wounded and was in rehabilitation, returned to the front that same day. It was the last time they ever saw each other.

Inna had been in the military since 2016, serving as a cook in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Shortly before the full-scale invasion, she gave birth and was on maternity leave. On March 19, russian “police” came to her home. They knew the family was military — after a tip-off from the child’s godmother.

Inna did not deny her service. She showed them her newborn and said the baby would stay with the grandmother. After that, they took her from her home.

That was the beginning of 14 months of captivity.

In Mangush, Inna was stripped, her documents and jewelry were taken, and she was called a “sniper.” Her mother searched for her, but at the police station they said: “Don’t look for her. If she were standing here, I would shoot her on the spot.”

Inna’s husband filed requests for a prisoner exchange. He did not know he would never see her again. From March 25 to May 14, Inna was held in Olenivka.

The women were forced to stand all day and were forbidden to move. Their legs swelled. Sanitary pads were replaced with rags.

They were called “monkeys.” They were forced to sing the russian anthem. They were threatened that their relatives would be sent their “bones after the rats finished eating them.”

They were given fake “sentences” of 10–15 years in prison to terrorize them. Then they were transferred to the Donetsk detention center. There were 17 women per cell. There were not enough bunk beds, so most slept on the floor.

Cockroaches and bedbugs bit them until they bled. After countless complaints, they were given only one bottle of antiseptic for everyone. The food was literal slop. The water came from a fire truck, drawn from a local lake and not fit for drinking. During interrogations, bags were put over their heads and they were beaten with rubber batons.

On March 1, 2023, Inna learned from a letter from her mother that her husband Valentyn had been killed on April 22, 2022, in Donetsk Oblast by shrapnel to the back of his head.

She no longer wanted to live. Other captive women held her back. Every day they reminded her: you have children.

On May 26, 2023, Inna was released. Her release document stated that she was “not a terrorist and has no blood on her hands.”

The first thing she did after returning was go to her husband’s grave. Later, she had his portrait tattooed on her arm.

Source: translated and adopted from Tymofiy Milovanov

Comment from :

Marvin Cauldwell

These horrid stories of Russian atrocities must not be forgotten after Putin is defeated.

Anders Nilsson

All materials for Ukrina NOW
They must defeat the terorists attacking Ukrina.

Michael Михайло Pleszkewycz Плешкевич

I am getting tired of these stories of suffering. Long overdue for russian civilians to experience the same.

Karen B.

How utterly depraved these torturers of prisoners are. Depraved sadists. Every armed force in every country seems to have these prisons and sadists. Shows that nobody in governments care at all, otherwise this would not happen.

Marc Kleinhenz

Director at New York State Office of People With Developmental Disabilities 

And how does Russia think she will react? Or her family? Do they think she will just go back to a quiet life and turn the other cheek or have they just created a burning hate that will last generations?