On April 9th, 2022, the Ukrainian garrison in Mariupol attempted a mass breakout. Around 400 men were killed in a single night. The attempt failed. Three days later, Senior Sergeant Ievgen Malik's unit — cut off, out of food, out of ammunition — made the decision to surrender. What came next took two and a half years.

In this first of two episodes with Rob Lee — FPRI Senior Fellow and one of the world's most respected Russian military analysts — Ievgen Malik details the final days of the Battle of Mariupol: the failed breakout, the capture of a 19-year-old Russian conscript sent in with a cigarette lighter, the negotiations on a bridge with a colonel and a T-72 tank, and the decision to surrender with 90 men still alive.

Then: Sartana, Olenivka, a flight into Russia blindfolded, and the beginning of interrogations at Ryazhsk prison. Rob Lee brings the same precise analytical approach he applies to the battlefield — and the result is the most detailed first-hand account of Mariupol's final chapter, and what Russian captivity actually looks like, that you will find anywhere.

Part 2 continues in Ep9.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction (Sam Cook)

04:39 Rob Lee Sets the Scene

05:40 90 Men at the Agla Factory — Ievgen Introduces Himself

08:13 The Surrender Order: April 12th and 13th

08:54 April 9th — 400 Dead in One Night: The Breakout That Failed

16:47 A Colonel From the Security Service — Negotiations Begin

18:34 The 19-Year-Old With the Lighter: Capturing a Russian Conscript

21:02 The Bridge — a Colonel, a T-72, and an Exchange Offer

23:21 "There Is a Chance to Survive" — the Decision to Surrender

27:17 Buses to Sartana — and the Australian They Shot on Sight

31:59 Olenivka: 830 Prisoners

36:13 "An Exchange Through Russia" — the Flight Into the Unknown

42:09 Ryazhsk Prison: Processing

48:02 The Screams Down the Hall

53:10 "Did You Shoot Our Troops?" — the Interrogation

1:08:29 The Sticks: What Torture Implements Actually Do

1:11:55 "Captivity Is 10 Times Worse Than Mariupol"

1:13:19 "Every Day I Thought — Why Didn't I Shoot Myself"

1:13:40 Random Beatings: When Violence Becomes Entertainment

1:19:28 Room 19

1:26:53 Propaganda Is the Nuclear Weapon of the 21st Century

1:30:43 Waterboarding

1:33:57 Outro & Sponsors

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Produced by the Borderlands Foundation.