Some Ukrainian Prisoners Treated 'Like Slaves', Says Simon Ostrovsky

While filming near the now-destroyed Donetsk Airport, journalist Simon Ostrovsky interviewed Ukrainian POWs who were being used to dig out bodies of soldiers killed in fighting at the airport.

A seasoned war correspondent, Ostrovsky said it was one of the few times when he had been standing next to a person whose position was so much lower than his own. "It's incredible to be standing next to people who are essentially slaves," he said, explaining that their circumstances were so beyond his own.

Ostrovsky has been covering the Russian-Ukrainian conflict since the invasion of Crimea in March 2014 as part of the Russian Roulette series on VICE News.

Hromadske International's Ian Bateson and Nataliya Gumenyuk spoke with Ostrovsky on Sunday, March 15, 2015.