Ukrainian POW stole prisoner lists during Russian FSB interrogation, hid them in mattress
A Ukrainian soldier who survived a devastating battlefield injury and Russian captivity has described how he stole lists of Ukrainian prisoners of war from an interrogator's desk and hid them inside his prison mattress, hoping the documents could eventually help families learn that their missing relatives were alive.
Oleksii Kapeliushnyi, a recipient of Ukraine's highest state honor, Hero of Ukraine, recounted the incident in an interview with Ukrainian military radio station Army FM published on November 10.
Kapeliushnyi said he was brought in for questioning at a Russian prison when an officer from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) received a phone call asking him to deliver a USB drive.
The officer left the room, leaving papers and a laptop on his desk.
Among the documents, Kapeliushnyi spotted a stapled stack of pages containing the names of Ukrainian soldiers held at the prison.
"I don't know what drove me at that moment. Honestly, I don't know why I did it or how I even thought of it," he recalled.
After checking the room for surveillance cameras, he grabbed the papers and concealed them in his clothing.
Only later, he said, did he fully understand their potential importance.
"I knew that sooner or later I would go home, that I would be exchanged. And these papers with names would be very useful information," he said.
"Not everyone could have known that someone was alive. Some were considered missing, others dead. And here was direct proof that these people were alive."
Back in his cell, Kapeliushnyi carefully opened the stitching of his mattress and hid the documents inside, where they remained until the time came to use them.
From the battlefield to captivity - and back to service
Kapeliushnyi served with Ukraine's 25th Separate Airborne Sicheslav Brigade during the defense of Verkhniotoretske, near Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, in 2022.
He recalled facing Russian forces that vastly outnumbered his unit. During one battle, he was left alone defending a house after his fellow soldiers were killed or separated from him.
A grenade severely injured his leg, but he continued resisting until Russian troops set the building on fire.
He eventually crawled outside and was captured.
Kapeliushnyi said he later had to sever his badly damaged leg himself and underwent further amputation while in Russian captivity.
After returning to Ukraine through a prisoner exchange, he resumed military service.
He now works in a noncombat role with his brigade and helps promote opportunities for wounded former prisoners of war and other injured service members to continue serving in positions suited to their abilities.
Kapeliushnyi said he had always believed he would return home.
After his release, he even joked to his wife and mother that he had not been a prisoner at all.
"I was carrying out a very important mission to destroy the enemy's moral, material and psychological foundations," he said.
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