WARSAW, Poland — A Ukrainian film director recently freed from Russian captivity says prisoners where he was held were routinely abused.

Oleg Sentsov was included in a Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange last month and is in Poland to receive a film industry award.

The 43-year-old critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin spent five years in captivity in a colony above the Arctic circle on charges of plotting a terrorist act.

In remarks posted late Wednesday, Sentsov said the barracks were warm, but inmates are still tortured, beaten and humiliated. He says he was treated slightly better thanks to the interest of the international public opinion.

He continued his criticism of Putin, saying the Russian leader would “sooner give away the Kremlin than return Crimea” to Ukraine.

The Associated Press