(28 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chernihiv region, Ukraine – 6 May 2025
1. Wide of the bus with Ukrainian prisoners of war coming to the hospital
2. Wide of POWs leaving the bus
3. Mid of 21-year-old former Ukrainian POW Denys Zalizko screaming UPSOUND (Ukrainian): "Ukraine is above all!"
4. Close-up of Denys Zalizko puts his head to the other POW’s mother hand
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyiv region – 2 July 2025
5. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Denys Zalizko, Former Ukrainian POW:
++STARTS ON SHOT 4++
"You won’t forgive it and you won’t deceive yourself. Even if you really want to, you still won’t forget it. It will always haunt you, it will always show you how hard it was for you."
6. Various of Denys Zalizko pulls himself up
7. Various of Denys Zalizko hits the ball
8. Various of Denys Zalizko boxing a punching bag
9. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian), Denys Zalizko, 21, former Ukrainian prisoner of war:
++STARTS ON SHOT 6 AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 8++
"I can walk around with a cheerful face, with a smile, but in reality, those who see me know that we are actually dying inside, everyone who was in captivity, everyone who is at the war."
10. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian), Denys Zalizko, 21, former Ukrainian prisoner of war: ++STARTS ON SHOT 10 AND PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOT 13++
"My goal is to become a famous artist, I want to sing. I really want to sing. I want to show what Ukrainians are capable of, how they tear things apart with their voice alone."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Holovyne, Zhytomyr region – 7 July 2025
11. Various of former Ukrainian POW Denys Zalizko rising Ukrainian flag from the car’s window during coming back home to his village after one year in Russian captivity
12. Wide of people waving to Denys Zalizko with Ukrainian flags, balloons and fires
13. Various of dozens of people meeting Denys Zalizko in his village
14. Closeup of a girl looking at Denys Zalizko singing
15. Mid of Denys Zalizko singing to the people of his village
16. Closeup of Ukrainian flag
STORYLINE:
At 21, Denys Zalizko had survived torture, suicide attempts and relentless beatings during roughly 15 months in Russian captivity.
He says sheer survival instinct kept him alive.
Weeks after his release, Zalizko is almost unrecognizable from the frail figure who stepped off the bus with other freed POWs in May.
With healthy skin, strong muscles and determined energy, he now looks like a young athlete — but the trauma still lingers.
The sadness shadows in his eyes.
He is now in rehabilitation at Lisova Polyana, a mental health center outside Kyiv — one of the mandatory steps in Ukraine’s state program to help former POWs recover.
But two things keep him moving forward: music and training.
To clear the fog in his mind, he pushes himself at the gym or sings whenever he can.
“Pauses and stillness bring anxiety,” he says, a reminder of the captivity that taught him to always stay on alert.
Like many former POWs, he still battles hypervigilance — listening for threats, scanning his surroundings.
At night, sleep comes in fragments, cut short not only by frequent Russian drone attacks.
“You won’t forgive it and you won’t deceive yourself. Even if you really want to, you still won’t forget it. It will always haunt you, it will always show you how hard it was for you,” Zalizko recalled.
Even in captivity, he sang quietly to himself, composing songs in his mind about love, home and war. Now he dreams of turning that passion into a career as an artist.
AP video shot by Vasilisa Stepanenko
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