'The army changed me' Ukrainian men on why life will never be the same

Russia’s invasion forced Ukrainian men of all ages to the frontlines, most with no experience of combat. Tracy McVeigh spoke to five soldiers about how life in the army transformed them

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Valentyn Polianskyi, 24 Poet, tailor, ex-prisoner (above) After his mother died when he was very young, Valentyn Polianskyi was raised in the Kherson region by his aunt and his grandmother.

Now 24, he says he felt a little embarrassed by his love of sewing clothes, believing it was "more for women than men", so after studying tailoring at university he signed a contract with the 36th marine brigade, where he served as a material support sergeant.

He met a woman and within months they were engaged. "We were at the flowers and candy stage," he said. When the Russian invasion came on 24 February 2022 he was deployed in Mariupol, at the Illich steel plant. The seaport city was besieged; tens of thousands of Ukrainians were killed and 90% of the city was destroyed. On 12 April, as his unit was told by their commander to surrender to avoid being wiped out, Polianskyi learned his girlfriend was pregnant. It was the 48th day of war when he was taken into Russian captivity, and Polianskyi spent the next three years being beaten, starved, tortured and poisoned.

"Sometimes, I find it easier not to talk at all. It's very hard to talk about captivity," he said. "You get up at 6am and have to stand up until 10pm. So your legs get swollen and lumps of blood form beneath the skin." After the hours of standing, "you cannot even walk up the one step to the toilets, it is agony. Always there are beatings.

"There are men castratedchemicals forced into people. There are no doctors, so older men, if they have health problems, they die.

My friend died of pneumonia - he was 47.

"When I came back, I found I had a wife and a two-and-a-half-yearold child. That was hard. Before the invasion we were closer, it was very romantic. Now we are a lot colder and my daughter is struggling to see where I fit into their lives.

Sometimes she calls me Daddy but sometimes she calls me Valentyn.