A meeting with Russian mercenaries in a Ukrainian prison: I'm lucky to be alive'

"He has just left cell 403, in block 13 of the prison where he is being held, somewhere in Kyiv province that will remain anonymous for security reasons. The light is dim in the corridor, but it gains intensity along the labyrinth that leads to the room where he is being held. The smell is strong. A soldier, stripped of his weapon, safely stored at the entrance to the facility, tells him yes, he can shake hands. He smiles."

"His full name is Oluwagbemileke Kehinde, and he was born 29 years ago in the Nigerian town of Ewekoro. Educated and with professional experience, he was captured last July in southern Ukraine, heading toward Zaporizhzhia, by a unit of Russian soldiers rebelling against Vladimir Putin's government. His life had taken a near-fatal turn in just over four years. I'm lucky to be alive, he admits. But now I don't know what to expect."

"Some inmates lie down, others sit or loiter by the gate. It's easy to see, from their features, that some are foreigners, many of them members of the thousands of war mercenaries Ukrainian intelligence services don't provide figures on how many they have captured that Moscow has hired to bolster its major offensive in Ukraine. The payment: a Russian passport and a salary of around 2,000 ($2,350) a month."

Oluwagbemileke Kehinde, 29, from Ewekoro, Nigeria, is held in cell 403, block 13 of a Kyiv-province prison. He was captured last July in southern Ukraine while heading toward Zaporizhzhia by a unit of Russian soldiers rebelling against Vladimir Putin. Guards remove weapons and open small peephole windows to display inmates. The corridor is dim and the cells smell strong. The prison contains multiple foreigners, including Egyptians and hired war mercenaries recruited by Moscow with offers of Russian passports and salaries around $2,350 a month. Kehinde considers himself lucky to be alive but remains uncertain about his future.

Read at english.elpais.com