They are invisible victims of Russia’s war against Ukraine. More than 20,000 Ukrainian civilians are in Russian captivity, Ukrainian authorities claim. Outside a Russian military base at Mariupol, Alina Chechelyuk sat for eight days waiting for older sister Maryana. – Where is my sister? Alina Chechelyuk asks in despair. What she didn’t know then was that Maryana had already been sent to a penal camp in Donetsk. The only signs of life left of 23-year-old Maryana are a photo taken by a news agency and a 30-second phone call. Warn the family February 23: One day before Russia’s full-scale invasion begins, Maryana calls the family home. More than 100,000 Russian soldiers are now ready at the border. Maryana worked as a police officer before the war started in full on 24 February 2022. Photo: Private Maryana, a young police officer, has been ordered to evacuate her home town of Mariupol, to Dnipro. On the phone with her mother, Maryana tells the family to leave town. Determined to be with his family, the 23-year-old goes and hands in his police badge. But the family does not understand the seriousness. That there will be a full-scale war in the home country sounds completely remote. – On 23 February we went to bed without fear in our bodies, says Vitaly. The Chechelyuk family: Natalya, Vitaly, Alina and Maryana. Photo: Private February 24, at five in the morning, the family wakes up suddenly. Outside, Russian missiles rain down on the city. The attack on Mariupol is underway. Refuge in Azovstal After exactly one month of war, the family is still stuck in Mariupol. On March 25, the girls and their parents lose each other. Vitaly and Natalya decide to stay in a Mariupol under attack, hoping to find their children. Vitaly has difficulty gathering the words, but finally says: – My wife stayed in a cellar, where we sought refuge. When the attacks stopped, I ran outside to look for my children. An overview of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. Photo: AZOVREGIMENTET The sisters are also stuck in the city. – It was awful. We changed bomb bays three times. The sound of planes in the sky was everywhere – and the sound of missile explosions and the sound of cluster bombs too, says little sister Alina. In the chaos, the sisters seek refuge in the Azovstal steelworks, together with several hundred civilians and Ukrainian soldiers. The steelworks’ bunkers were supposed to withstand atomic bombs, it was said. But around Anila and Maryana, the walls have started to crack. Then, after seven days under constant attack, the UN negotiates an agreement on a humanitarian corridor for the civilians of Azovstal. Maryana and Alina are among the first hundred to be evacuated. The filtration camp in Bezimenne May 1: It is nine o’clock in the morning when the first group of civilians leave the steelworks. The sisters are in this pool. – We went through areas full of mines on our own. We walked about five kilometers before we saw the buses, says Alina. The evacuees are met by Russian soldiers – accompanied by the Red Cross and the UN. – We were told that we were going to Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhya, but we ended up in Bezimenne, Alina continues. Bezimenne, located about 25 kilometers east of Mariupol, has long been occupied by Russian-backed separatists. In a Russian facility, all of the Ukrainians who evacuated Azovstal are checked. The last photos of Maryana are also taken here. Dressed in a green parka and with one hand folded in his pocket, the 23-year-old, and his little sister in beige, are led into the tented camp. The tent camp in Bezimenne was the last place Maryana, in an olive green parka, and little sister Alina were together. Photo: ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / Reuters It is in Bezimenne that the soldiers learn that Maryana is a former police officer, says little sister Alina. She sees soldiers take Maryana out of the line, before returning to the tented camp. – Where is my sister? Alina asks in despair. Alina is told that her older sister will be cleared within a couple of days, so she decides to stay. For the next seven days, she asks the guards if they know where her sister is. But none of the guards have any answer. – On day eight, I borrowed the phone from a Russian soldier and called mum and dad: – I asked them to take me home, because someone had taken Maryana and they threatened to put me in an orphanage if I wasn’t picked up. Parents Vitaly and Natalya travel to Bezimenne right away. But there they only find their youngest daughter. Where is Mariana? – Did you hear anything from Maryana after 1 May 2022? – Nope, replies Alina. No, the mother adds, not since they received a call from Maryana on August 7, 2022, from Olenivka in Donetsk. The conversation lasted only 30 seconds, says Natalya: – There was a lot we wanted to ask her, but there was no time. The parents have contacted the Red Cross, the Ukrainian authorities and the Russian authorities, but apart from the fact that the daughter is registered as a prisoner, there is little information available. At regular intervals, however, they hear from other Ukrainian women who have been in the same prison as Maryana. One of them could tell that the 23-year-old has served two months in a “punishment cell”. Another says that Maryana looked anorexic and had black circles under her eyes, the last time they saw each other. The only thing the parents can hope for now is that Maryana will now become a bargaining chip, in the event of a prisoner exchange. And it raises hope in the family, who refuse to stop the search operation until they are reunited with their eldest daughter.
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– Where is my sister? – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
