A Wounded Ukraine Volunteer Lies in a Donetsk Prison—Where the Jailer Is Russian

The Wall Steet Journal ^ | Aug. 4, 2014 | Philip Shishkin

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A pro-Russia separatist guards a checkpoint in the eastern Ukrainian village of Rozsypne on Monday. Reuters DONETSK, Ukraine— Oleg Mamiyev, a Russian citizen with a beard and a lazy eye, descended a crooked flight of stairs into a basement on a rebel base here and unlocked a chain-link trapdoor to show off a prisoner. Sitting on a cot that barely fit into his dark nook, the prisoner, Maxim Kucheryavy, was obviously hungry and in pain. A Ukrainian volunteer who wanted to fight pro-Russian insurgents, Mr. Kucheryavy said he had been shot in both legs at point-blank range while unarmed and already in detention. Bandaged and limping, all Mr. Kucheryavy wanted now was to go home, just a three-hour drive from here. Ukraine volunteer Maxim Kucheryavy, shown in happier times, is being held by pro-Russian separatists in a Donetsk basement. vk.com His jailer's home is much farther away. Mr. Mamiyev is from North Ossetia, a Caucasus republic that is part of Russia. He had never set foot in Ukraine until three months ago. The owner of a private-security business, Mr. Mamiyev has a kickboxing background and combat experience in Russia's war with Georgia in 2008. He says it wasn't money that enticed him to fight Ukrainians here, but a complicated mix of attachments, including to God, to Russian President Vladimir Putin and to the Russian nation, even though he is an ethnic Ossetian. Mr. Mamiyev is part of a chaotic insurgent movement that, with Moscow's help, has brought to east Ukraine the kind of warfare—featuring assorted militias, artillery, tanks and trenches—that calls to mind World War II and the 1990s Balkan conflicts.

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Russian claims "it wasn't money that enticed him to fight Ukrainians" but he drives a stolen Porsche. When captured the Ukrainian was beaten with a baseball bat and the shot in both legs.