SHUMAILA ASLAM
Scandinavian News Agency
Bureau Chief Pakistan
Serhiy Hrebinyk, 25, recently freed from Russian captivity, is a vivid example. Over more than three years, he endured imprisonment in four separate Russian facilities as a Ukrainian prisoner of war. Despite the harsh conditions, he recalls small moments of reprieve—competing in a chess tournament organized by his guards, reading Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, and clinging to the hope of returning home.
When Serhiy finally arrived back in his northeastern hometown of Trostyanets last month, the city was unrecognizable from the one he left in the summer of 2021, prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion. During his absence, Russian forces briefly occupied Trostyanets while he was hundreds of miles away under siege in Mariupol. Captured in April 2022, Serhiy was released in a June prisoner exchange between Russian and Ukrainian forces, marking the end of a grueling ordeal.
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