Journalists Identify Surgeons Involved in Burning In “Glory to Russia” on Ukrainian POW

Journalists have identified Russian surgeons who may be responsible for leaving the inscription “Glory to Russia” on the body of a Ukrainian prisoner of war.

The Schemes project of Radio Free Europe reported on the investigation.

In the summer of 2025, images circulated worldwide showing a burned inscription and the letter “Z” on the body of Ukrainian serviceman Andrii Pereverziev after his return from Russian captivity.

For a long time, the circumstances surrounding the appearance of the degrading inscription on the prisoner’s abdomen remained unclear. Pereverziev shared that he overheard medical staff conversations indicating that the surgery, which left the scars, had been performed by a Russian doctor.

A Ukrainian physician currently treating Pereverziev and helping reduce the scarring described it as a cynical “gift from the surgeon.”

Andrii recalls that after being wounded, he was evacuated by members of the DPR armed group, whom he recognized by their accent, and later transported to temporarily occupied Donetsk.

At every stage of this journey, the serviceman was beaten and interrogated. Due to severe injuries and significant blood loss, he repeatedly lost consciousness, briefly regained awareness, and then passed out again.

After being held in basements, the Ukrainian serviceman was taken, according to him, to one of the hospitals in Donetsk, where he underwent urgent surgery.

Andrii remembers little of that day. In the morning, he was brought to the hospital grounds blindfolded and with his hands tied, then taken into an operating room. There was only a nurse present, who administered anesthesia, after which he “blacked out.”

Reconstructing the events

The Schemes investigative team set out to reconstruct the chronology of events to determine exactly where the Ukrainian serviceman was operated on and under what circumstances the scar appeared.

The journalists’ starting point was the medical facility itself.

Andrii was able to name the hospital in occupied Donetsk where he was taken after being wounded, captured, and held in basements, having heard its name from medical staff. Schemes was able to independently confirm this information.

It was the Donetsk Clinical Territorial Medical Association.

The former prisoner’s recollections also became a starting point for journalists in their search for the doctor who left the degrading inscription on his body.

Andrii said that he overheard conversations among nurses at a second hospital in Donetsk, to which he was later transferred. They told each other that a Russian doctor had performed the surgery.

According to journalists, that doctor was either surgeon Andrii Kriachko or Yurii Kuznetsov. At the same time, other participants in the operation could not have overlooked the actions of one of the surgeons.

These include the heads of the surgical departments – Oleksandr Shatalov (Department No. 1) and Nikos Yengenov (Department No. 2); Valentyn Kobets, the head of the urology department; Nataliia Tolstova, the head of the intensive care unit; and Oleksandr Borota, the head of the proctology department.