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Father Bohdan Geleta says beatings and torture were a part of life during detention in occupied Ukraine, where inmates suffered a horrifying ritual before meals
As war-torn Ukraine passes the anniversary of Russia’s all-out invasion, a priest delivers a poignant service to remember the dead.
But Father Bohdan Geleta’s heavenly mass is a far cry from the living hell he endured this time last year… in Kremlin captivity. The 60-year-old was finally freed over the summer after 19 months’ detention. Beatings and torture were a part of life at a brutal POW camp in occupied Ukraine he ended up at.
Inmates even had to suffer a terrifying gauntlet of guards whacking them before meals — followed by electric shocks. In a moving interview with the Mirror, the clergyman shed light on surviving under a regime of unthinkable cruelty.
He and colleague Father Ivan Levytsky bravely stayed behind when Vladimir Putin’s forces took the port city of Berdiansk, Zaporizhzia, at the full-on invasion’s outset in late February 2022. The brave pair, both of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, delivered services during the occupation.
Father Bohdan – no stranger to tough environments, having earlier been a priest in Siberia – described the first days as “terrifying”. “One of the invading soldiers wanted to call home and asked a man for his personal phone and the man said no,” he explained, adding: “He was shot on the spot.”
“I heard a lot of different stories,” he explained. “People came to our church and told us that their relatives were missing, some people were found dead, other’s apartments were robbed and broken. It was constant.” Eventually, the pair were arrested in November 2022 on trumped-up allegations; weapons were planted.
They suffered the indignity of being handcuffed and bagged over the head. The duo spent the next nine months in Berdiansk before being shipped elsewhere to a POW camp in occupied Ukraine. Those at the “colony” in Horlivka, Donetsk — which houses 1,800 prisoners including Ukrainian soldiers — were forced to live by a strict set of rules on pain of punishment.
Father Bohdan told how he shaved his head and beard, as well as donning prisoner overalls. Heads had to be bowed, hands always behind backs and talking was forbidden — it was as if inmates’ souls were shackled. “I was beaten once or twice a day and it was every day,” Father Bohdan said.
The worst was saved for interrogation but he does not want to talk about it — it’s not hard to imagine why. None there wanted to eat, the priest explained — then he told us the dreaded reason.
Three times a day for meals, prisoners were put through an horrific ordeal that can only be described as torture. Father Bohdan said: “There were two types of guards: DPR [so-called Donetsk People’s Republic] and Russian special forces (Spetsnaz). The first were paid to guard us, they could beat us but not kill.
“The second were more violent, they were training there. In order to eat in the dining room we had to run through a narrow corridor formed of guards with sticks who were standing in two rows. We ran fast hands behind the back, hunched over, looking down. Sometimes guards broke people’s arms, legs and ribs.”
More brutality followed. “When we sat down at the table of 10 people there was a command ‘Start eating!’ We had only three minutes,” he recalled. “The food was boiling soup and bread. We threw this bread into this soup to cool it down so it was more bearable to eat.”
He added: “During those three minutes when we were eating, guards used electric shockers on us. Because of this some people poured all the soup on themselves and got burned.” Asked whether it happened every meal, he confirmed it did, adding: “Three times a day every day. That’s why no one wanted to eat. After the meal we had to run the same corridor of guards with sticks again.”
The priest, released with Father Ivan in a prisoner exchange in late June, is now based in Ivano-Frankivsk, north-west Ukraine. “It was unexpected,” Father Bohdan said of being let go. Pope Francis spoke of his joy at the pair’s release at the time, saying: “I give thanks to God for the freeing of the two Greek Catholic priests.”
And Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked them for their strength. He said: “They both preached the Word of God in Berdyansk, in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church parish of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On November 16, 2022, the occupiers abducted them and have kept them in captivity since. Thanks to the efforts of our team and the mediation of the Holy See, to which I am especially grateful, we were able to bring them back to freedom. We believed it was possible. We worked for it.”
For Father Bohdan, being back working as a priest “is a kind of rehab”. He added: “All that is happening now and has happened is a great testimony that we are the instrument in God’s hands. For the future I will continue to testify and help those who want to change their lives for the better and even that will already be good. All the will of God.”
We watched him deliver a memorial service – held daily on weekdays – on the morning of February 24 at the Parish of Mother Mary Perpetual Help, where a grand chandelier hangs over worshippers. Volunteers there hand-make camouflage netting for the war effort. One message of gratitude from a Ukrainian battalion unit written on a flag passes on thanks to “women who make us invisible to the enemy”.
Father Ivan, entirely understandably, does not give interviews. But Father Bohdan explained: “Today I can talk about it, because now I can cope with those emotions that I felt those days.
“Although, I think that the pictures of what I saw there will be with me forever. The only reason that helped me survive there was my faith in God and also the belief that I’m here for some reason. God has a plan for me and I have a mission here.”