‘You say you are a musician, they beat you more’: the Ukrainian sax player who survived Putin’s torture prisons

Yuriy Merkotan played in a military band and, after being caught up in the Mariupol siege, spent nearly two years in various jails

When Yuriy Merkotan enlisted in Ukraine’s national guard in 2020, it was not because he wanted to fight. A saxophonist living in the southern port city of Mariupol, there were few opportunities to play music professionally. So when a spot became free in a 16-person band attached to a national guard brigade, he jumped at the chance.

But when Russian forces put Mariupol under siege in February 2022, the band members were called to duty. They ended up inside Azovstal, the sprawling factory that became the last bastion of Ukrainian defence as the Russian occupation proceeded to its grim conclusion.