Years in Russian captivity - Bessarabian Bulgarian Ivan Pepelyashkov, a military pilot, captured by the Russian army and released, tells Teodora Gateva, special envoy of BNT in Kiev.
- First of all, thank you for inviting me. On March 8, 2022, we were performing a special task with our helicopters and while we were doing work, a little mischief happened - we lost three out of 4 helicopters. My comrade and I survived, they shot us down on enemy territory and our army could not come to help us, we fell into the hands of the enemy.
Teodora Gateva, BNT: Can you tell us what it was like during the Russian captivity?
Ivan Pepelyashkov: For 4 years there are no more secrets about what it is like to be a prisoner of the Russians, nothing good, nothing related to the Geneva Convention is sticking. Whatever you can imagine, everything is like that. They have a great school, a lot of experience since the 1930s.
- How long were you with them, did they move you?
- Yes, they moved us from place to place, we were almost two months in captivity.
- Where was it the hardest?
- The hardest was in Kursk.
- Can you tell us more?
- Violence, terror, crushing - physical and psychological, extracting information, pressure, pressure mostly psychological with physiological... It's hard to say what their goal is, my comrade Alexey and I never understood what their goal is, meaningless questions. They said - you are pilots, you fly high, you see everything - tell us everything about Ukraine, where what is there, what is your political goal. Questions at a strategic level that we, as cogs in a mechanism, cannot know, but they are not interested in that at all.
- How did it happen that they let you go?
- There is a concept - an exchange fund, I don't know, maybe from past years, from past wars for pilots. When they captured us, they may have violated an agreement that they had a way, an order to exchange their pilot for ours. Their pilots were in captivity in Ukraine. This was a secret agreement. As far as we know, the president's office and the Main Intelligence Directorate activated this exchange mechanism.
- How did they treat you, did it bother you that you were Bulgarian?
- There were many questions, from different services, over 7 services that are not connected to each other, they constantly interrogate. The first question was nationality - I openly said that I was Bulgarian and this was very unclear to them - why, how could a Bulgarian fight for Ukraine? I explained that I am from the Odessa region - Bessarabia, where many Bulgarians live. I was born in Ukraine, grew up in Ukraine and fight for this country and love this country. It was very unclear to them how it happened. In general, it is difficult, hard to understand, but in the end they even had such a moment of contacting the Bulgarian embassy about the exchange fund, that was what was being discussed at one point. Then they understood where things were going and the exchange took place through the Ukrainian side.
- How did this experience change you?
- The fact that I became different - this is 100%. What I was until March 8, 2022 and who I am today - these are two different people. The most important thing is the attitude towards life, what is first, what is second, what should one live for and what should one waste one's time on - reassessment.
- What are you wasting your time on now?
- For good, I understand that time can stop at any moment and I don't know when the Lord will call me up. That's why I hope, I want to be able to do more good for my land, for my relatives, my brothers and sisters.
- What has changed in 4 years in Ukraine?
- Each person looks at this life through his own filter, my filter is still a military filter, I am responsible from a military point of view, I think about the front, about the front line. That's why my focus is in this direction. I understand that the civilian population has other views, I spend over 90% of my time with my military comrades and we ask ourselves only military questions - how to stabilize the front, how to regain territories, how to develop in technology, for tactics, operational art and strategic goals.
- What would you do now if you met one of the people who captured you 4 years ago?
- I am very happy every moment when I see that there is an exchange of prisoners of war. New joys have appeared, things that were not important to me before, now every moment is important. I know what those who are waiting for an exchange are experiencing, I know what their relatives think, you can't talk about this without tears. The conditions of captivity are cruel, they have serious experience, I will not be able to recognize anyone, they were always wearing masks. They are probably afraid that this could happen and I think they might be recognized by their voices.
- The first thing you will do after the war is over?
- What I am doing today. I have no barrier for myself that today is the end, as the apostle Paul said - help each other. I think that is the motto of today.