Famed Ukrainian medic describes ‘hell’ of Russian captivity

The captive Ukrainian medic’s eyeglasses had lengthy since been taken away, and the face of the Russian man strolling previous her was a blur. Yuliia Paievska knew solely that her life was being traded for his, and that she was forsaking 21 girls in a tiny three- by six-meter (10- by 20-foot) jail cell that they had shared for what felt like an eternity.

Her pleasure and aid was tempered by the sense that she was abandoning them to an unsure destiny. Before she was captured, Paievska, higher identified all through Ukraine as Taira, had recorded greater than 256 gigabytes of harrowing bodycam footage exhibiting her group’s efforts to save lots of the wounded within the besieged metropolis of Mariupol. She bought the footage to Associated Press journalists, the final worldwide group in Mariupol, on a tiny information card.

The journalists fled the town on March 15 with the cardboard embedded inside a tampon, carrying it by way of 15 Russian checkpoints. The subsequent day, Taira was taken by pro-Russian forces. Three months handed earlier than she emerged on June 17, skinny and haggard, her athlete’s physique greater than 10 kilograms (22 kilos) lighter from lack of nourishment and exercise.

She stated the AP report that confirmed her caring for Russian and Ukrainian troopers alike, together with civilians of Mariupol, was essential to her launch. She chooses her phrases fastidiously when discussing the day she was taken captive, and is much more cautious when discussing the jail for worry of endangering the Ukrainians nonetheless there.

But she is unequivocal concerning the influence of the video launched by the AP. “You got this flash drive out and I thank you,” she stated in Kyiv to an AP group that included the journalists in Mariupol. “Because of you, I could leave this hell. Thanks to everyone involved in the exchange.” She nonetheless feels responsible about these she left behind and stated she’s going to strive her finest to assist free them. “They are all I think about,” she stated. “Every time I grab a cup of coffee or light a cigarette, my conscience pains me because they can’t.”

Taira, 53, is one in every of hundreds of Ukrainians believed to have been taken prisoner by Russian forces. The Geneva Conventions single out medics, each navy and civilian, for defense “in all circumstance.”

Taira is an outsized persona in Ukraine, famed for her work coaching area medics and immediately recognizable by her shock of blond hair and the tattoos that circle each arms. Her launch was introduced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Despite the load loss and all she has endured, she remains to be vibrant. She smokes continuously, lighting one cigarette after one other as if making an attempt to make up for the three months she had none.

She speaks quietly, with out malice, and her frequent smiles gentle her face deep into her brown eyes. A demobilized navy medic who suffered again and hip accidents lengthy earlier than the Russian invasion, Taira can be a member of the Ukraine’s Invictus Games group. She acquired the physique digital camera in 2021 to movie for a Netflix documentary sequence on inspirational figures being produced by Britain’s Prince Harry, who based the Invictus Games. But when Russian forces invaded in February, she educated the lens on scenes of battle in Mariupol. “My heart bleeds when I think about it, when I remember how the city died. It died like a person — it was agonizing,” she stated. “It feels like when a person is dying and you can’t do anything to help, the same way.” At one level, Taira gathered a gaggle of 20 folks hiding in her hospital’s basement, principally kids, right into a small yellow bus to take them away from Mariupol. That’s when the Russians noticed her.

“They recognized me. They went away, made a call, came back,” she stated. “As far as I can tell, they already had a plan.” She appeared 5 days in a while a Russian information broadcast that introduced her seize. On the video, Taira appears to be like groggy, and her face is bruised. As she reads a press release ready for her, a voiceover derides her as a Nazi. Inside the jail, they had been pressured to sing the Russian nationwide anthem on daily basis — twice, 3 times, generally 20 or 30 occasions if guards didn’t like their habits. She hates the anthem much more now, however talks about it with a flash of humor and defiance. “I found it a plus because I’ve always wanted to learn to sing — then suddenly I had the time and a reason to practice,” she stated. “And it turns out that I can sing.”

After countless, repetitive putrid weeks damaged solely by salt-free porridge with bacon, packets of reconstituted mashed potatoes, cabbage soup, and a few canned fish, Taira discovered herself within the three- by six-meter (10- by 20-foot) cell with 21 different girls, 10 cots and little or no else. They had been held in a most safety jail with no trial and no conviction. She gained’t go into particulars about how they had been handled, however stated that they had no details about their households, no toothbrushes, few possibilities to scrub. Her well being began to fail. “I’m not 20 years old anymore and this body can take less than it used to,” she stated ruefully.

“The treatment was very hard, very rough. … The women and I were all exhausted.” Taira’s expertise is in keeping with Russia’s repeated violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation on deal with detained civilians and prisoners of battle, stated Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties. Her husband, Vadim Puzanov, stated Taira remained essentially the identical regardless of three months of captivity and is open about what she endured.

“Perhaps there will be long-term consequences, but she is full of plans,” he stated. “She is moving on.” Asked if she had feared demise in captivity, Taira stated it was a query her jailers requested usually, and she or he had a prepared reply. “I said no because I’m right with God,” she informed them. “But you are definitely going to hell.”