Kherson Entrepreneur Igor Kuraian's Heroic Fight Against Russian Occupation

Kherson entrepreneur Igor Kuraian is a man who has always had an active civic position. Since 2014, he has been volunteering, helping Ukrainian defenders in the east of the country, and later he himself came to the defense of his native Kherson. From the first hours of the full-scale invasion, the man enlisted in the terrorist defense, was one of those who held back the enemy near Antonivskyi Bridge and partisaned in the occupied city, for which he later suffered merciless torture in captivity. Read more about the defense of the city and why it failed, the realities of Russian captivity and an unexpected rescue in an exclusive interview with Intent.

What was it like for you when the full-scale invasion began?

It was not a surprise, because for many years I had been volunteering, often communicating with the military, seeing the situation in the East and constantly analyzing the actions of the Russians in the annexed Crimea. I knew there would be a war, I just didn't know when. The neighbors' determination to invade was confirmed by the construction of the Crimean bridge and the road to Armyansk. In order to redeploy troops, we needed the appropriate road infrastructure.

Everything coincided. That's why I told my wife a long time ago that in case of war I would join the terrorist defense. And so it happened. At 5 a.m. on February 24, I heard the first explosion, jumped out onto the balcony and saw the smoke columns in the area of Chornobaivka. And then I received a call from a close friend informing me that the Russians were approaching Nova Kakhovka. So I acted quickly: I took my wife's and my wedding rings, buried them in case of searches, and went to the military registration and enlistment office. Back in 2020, I took terrorist defense training, so I was immediately enrolled in the second company.

Your unit received an order to repel the occupiers near Antonivskyi Bridge, how did the events develop?

This was our first task, and after receiving our weapons we immediately headed to the bridge. At that time, a fierce battle was already taking place there. A column of our 59th Brigade was moving from the Left Bank, holding back the Russians' invasion. Having advantages in manpower and equipment, the occupiers advanced very quickly. The enemy aviation mercilessly did its job. There were many explosions. Previously, this could only be seen in movies, but then it became a reality. A terrible reality.

Was the issue of blowing up the Antonivskyi Bridge discussed?

We met National Guard soldiers near the bridge who told us to go back. The enemy was too close, and we had only machine guns. That's when the question of blowing it up came up. It would have given us precious time and could have destroyed some of the Russian columns. We begged the leadership to blow up the bridge. Unfortunately, there were many "buts". As a result, the Russians finally broke through the bridge, and the occupation columns followed one by one. And we had to retreat.

Having received data on the movement of the enemy columns from Nova Kakhovka, their crossing of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, we realized that the enemy was also moving towards the regional center from the other side. So the next day, we took up a defensive position near the Darya Bridge. According to the plan, we expected an enemy landing. But as soon as the occupiers got closer, we saw that the situation was much worse. Unfortunately, we had no explosives, and there were too many of them. The Russians had much heavier weapons against our assault rifles. In addition, we found out that we were surrounded and received another order to withdraw. And the bypass road was already under the control of the occupiers. They left checkpoints everywhere. They opened fire on us, and we had to make our way back to the city on foot or crawl along the tracks.

What actions were planned by the Kherson terrorist defense?

Unfortunately, on February 25, there was no one from the SBU, the prosecutor's office or the National Police in the city. We realized that we were alone, but we tried to change something. Until the enemy entered the city, we performed various tasks of the brigade commander and tracked the enemy's movement. On March 1, we received an order to move to the entrance to Kherson from the side of Chornobaivka. We had to occupy the nearby car market, so we moved undetected towards Mykolaiv Highway, where we were in for a bad surprise - there were already Russian checkpoints, tanks were driving, and enemy BMPs and Tigers had started patrolling. We received a new order to go to the bus station. Upon arrival, I realized that we would not succeed: the territory was open to the public, there was nowhere to hide, and as it turned out later, a machine gunner was already sitting in the station building, and a Russian sniper was on duty in the Zodchiy store. We would have just been shot.

Then we moved to the pedestrian bridge near the train station to use the tracks to reach the bridges and try to control the area from above. At that time, I already had 350 Molotov cocktails and two boxes of grenades. So, we drove up, hid the cars and went along the tracks, and we were met with machine gun fire. So we were late with this location as well. The firefight lasted about 40 minutes, there was no reinforcement, and bullets were already flying from the other side. We had nothing left to shoot with, so we retreated. I hid all the remaining weapons in another part of the city, along with my car, so that we could safely split up until further orders.

In the following days, the city residents actively rallied. Were you also among them or did you fight in your own way?

Of course, I joined the rallies. The last time I took part in a rally during which Kherson residents brought and handed over a mourning wreath to the occupiers. I stood in front of the crowd with a Spanish volunteer, Mario, who was later kidnapped. We still don't know anything about him. After that, the brigade commander called and told me not to go anywhere else, they were already looking for me. I tried not to show my face, but together with other terrorist fighters, I continued to collect intelligence and pass it on to our Ukrainian services and military. Not far from where I was at the time, there were Russian Uragan tanks, so I took pictures and sent them with the coordinates to the right places. Together with the brigade, we also collected data on the number of columns and vehicles that continued to move across the Antonivskyi Bridge, and at the same time tried to organize an attack on the detention center where the occupiers were holding captured ATO participants and others. But the Russians found out about it very quickly, and later I realized how and why everything had gone wrong before...

How did the Russian special services manage to find you?

My platoon commander called me, said that we had to meet urgently, set a place and time. I thought that they would finally give me the necessary weapons, so the next day I arrived at the meeting place, but instead of the commander, I was met by Russian military intelligence and the FSB. That's how I got captured. Now it was clear how the occupiers were always one step ahead. One commander from our terrorist defense is still there, most likely in the occupied part of Kherson region. He was working for the enemy from the very beginning, telling everything about everyone, and then walking around the occupied city and handing over our terrorist defense to the Russians.

What charges were brought against you during your detention? What did they demand?

They knew absolutely everything about me. That I was a volunteer, that I helped the Right Sector and Azov, that I had been regularly traveling to the front since 2014, and of course that I was the one who hid our platoon's weapons and planned the attack on the detention center. So I was charged with helping terrorist organizations and groups banned in Russia. With such charges, I realized that I would not be released for another 20 years for sure.

Where were you held and what did the Russians ask you during interrogations?

For two weeks I was in the basement of the regional police headquarters. They set up a torture chamber there, where they interrogated me harshly: they used scissors, pliers, twisted my arms, tied me to a chair and beat me five times. This made the body not even blue, but black. The first thing they tried to find out was information about the weapons stockpile. I objected until I realized that they knew the area where I had hidden the car, that it would take just a day or two to find it.

They said they were ready to bring a person to confirm that it was me who had hidden the weapons. I was very worried that they would not kill any of the employees of the base where the car was parked. Thank God, no one was there when they came. They took my bus and made a report that they had detained a terrorist and this was his hiding place. And then they tortured me, demanding that I give up other terrorists. Of course, I denied everything. That's how 10 days passed, during which I was beaten a lot and had two vertebrae broken. They tried to get me to talk, persuaded me to cooperate, and offered me to become mayor. But I kept repeating that I had sworn an oath to my country and was not going to break it. I received a threat of execution.

Screenshot of a propaganda report

How did you end up in Sevastopol?

On April 18, we were told that we would be taken to the DPR, and the next day we were blindfolded, handcuffed and put in a car. We were driving all day, and then I heard the radio "Crimea" and realized that we were in Sevastopol or Simferopol. I was glad, to be honest. Although it is occupied, it is our land. We were sent to a prisoner of war camp. There were a lot of people there, not only from Kherson region, but also from Mariupol, fighters from Zmeinyi Island. It was a kind of hub, so the conditions were better. After the terrible torture chamber of the Kherson basement, at least they ate and slept on beds there.

How did you manage to tell your family about yourself?

In April, Russian television came there to film how wonderful it was for Ukrainian prisoners in their prisons. They cleaned us up, cut our hair, and forced us to give necessary comments, and I refused. But then I thought it was a chance. Maybe one of my friends would see me and know where to look for me. That's why I didn't turn away from the cameras in the end. And it happened, I ended up in front of the lens. It worked, I was recognized by an acquaintance who immediately called my wife, and she called her children.

My daughter raised everyone she could, the relevant authorities started acting, and our intelligence and other agencies carefully studied the recordings. Then we saw many more people who were considered dead or missing. Thanks to the cooperation of many people, I was included in the exchange lists. I am extremely grateful to everyone.

Screenshot of the propagandists' story

How did the exchange go?

They didn't tell us anything about the exchange, they just took us out on April 28, handcuffed and blindfolded us, and we were driving for a long time again. Then we stopped, my eyes were untied and I saw my seats, realized where we were. But the first thing that came to mind was that we were brought home for execution. Only then did it become clear that it was an exchange, urgent and unexpected. It happened near Posad Pokrovsky, right where the front line was. Seven of us from Sevastopol and three from Nova Kakhovka were brought there to be exchanged for seven orcs. We were happy, but they were not. We were going to our own people, and they were getting the boot from their own people. This is a big difference.

What did you do after the exchange?

After the exchange, I came to Mykolaiv, where a part of the Kherson terrorist defense was being restored. As soon as I completed all the procedures after my capture, I immediately decided to return to my home brigade, but I was not accepted for the Kherson area. They did not want to endanger their relatives who remained in occupied Kherson. So I had to visit Kharkiv and Donetsk region. After all, our native lands are still occupied, in particular, our Left Bank. Only by returning ours and achieving final peace will we become strong and be able to rebuild our cities and villages. Therefore, my plans and dreams are to restore my native Kherson, and I will do everything in my power to do so. Ukraine will definitely survive!

The work on this material was made possible by the Fight for Facts project, which is implemented with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Ігор Льов, Ганна Компаніченко