Mariupol Defender Publishes 'Satan's Sanatorium', Written With Chicken Bone On Prison Garb In Captivity

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) The author of the collection told an Ukrinform correspondent.

“When the book was brought to me and I finally held it in my hands, I was overwhelmed by incredible emotions. Every line is a story written with the heart. These pages contain my thoughts, feelings, pain and hope. It is especially moving to realize that words born during the hardest moments of my life have become a real book. I sincerely thank everyone who helped bring it into the world!” Petruk said, sharing his feelings.

He added that for him, it is not simply a book, but a piece of his soul, love, pain and experiences.

According to Petruk, the collection, whose layout he designed himself during a nighttime air raid at a hospital, contains about 40 works. The total print run is 500 copies, with 100 printed so far. Volunteers helped publish the book by launching a fundraising campaign and collecting the required amount in just a few days.

Petruk spent almost four years in Russian captivity after being taken prisoner following a serious injury. Looking for a way to escape the horrific reality, he found solace in creativity, beginning to write poems and later songs, more than 100 of which he has written in total. He said that he had never been particularly interested in literature either at school or university.

His first poem was written in 2023, on the birthday of his beloved Yuliia. They had not had time to marry when the full-scale war began. She promised to wait for him. But time passed, and throughout all his years in captivity, he received no word from his family and had no way of contacting them.

“I kept replaying in my mind the words my beloved said before we parted: 'I will wait for you for as long as it takes.' So, my first poetic lines were: 'Wait for me, I beg you!' And then it just kept flowing...” Petruk recalled.

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There was nothing to write his poems on, the serviceman said. Sometimes prisoners were given chicken bones disguised as meat. Petruk sharpened one of them and tried scratching words onto his prison trousers. It turned out that this method worked. From then on, he would write down the lines he had composed during the day, memorize them, and then wash the writing off with water in the evening so that he could write on the trousers again the following day.

Petruk was released from captivity on February 5, 2026, as part of a prisoner exchange. However, he is still in hospital. He has undergone major surgery and hopes to be back on his feet soon and able to walk without crutches.

As reported by Ukrinform, the Mariupol defender scratched poems onto prison clothing with a chicken bone while held in Russian captivity and dreamed that his beloved would wait for him.

Photos from the personal archive of Andrii Petruk

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