Wanted to Serve After 22 Years of Imprisonment
My name is Mykola Mykhailovych Kirsanov. I was sentenced to life imprisonment. I went to the city of Kherson for a case review and ended up under occupation. When Kherson was surrounded, the Rosgvardiya entered the prison. They abused us, stopped giving us food and bread, and we began having problems with both water and electricity.
They said: ‘If you want your lives to change, you can write an application and go to fight.’ Such things did happen. They also went around gathering people for the referendum. Many of our people became collaborators. I was terrified. I had never felt anything like it before; I slept fully dressed because I knew that if they drag someone out of their cell, they do not let them get dressed. They take you just as you are. So, I kept all my clothes on.
I was already saying goodbye to Ukraine, thinking I would never return. I thought Magadan, the 101st kilometre, or something like that was waiting for me. Or that I would be used as cannon fodder, sent somewhere to dig trenches through minefields. There were times when we couldn’t wash, had nothing to eat, and had no water. There was no electricity either, and it was freezing cold.
