Many of them are languishing in detention centers located in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. Sometimes without being able to give news to their loved ones. Often by being deprived of daylight and fresh air. And almost systematically by suffering psychological, physical or sexual violence. Two Ukrainian women, a civilian and a military doctor, agreed to deliver Duty their testimonies after being released from Russian jails.
“I was in hell,” says Maryana Mamonova, now 31, as she tells her moving story through her computer screen.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the young doctor was the head of a medical unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Mariupol. From the start of the war, the port city was targeted by the Russian army. A merciless siege had been imposed there.
“It was the apocalypse,” says Maryana. People were panicking and trying to flee the city. We didn’t have enough antibiotics and medical equipment. We had to improvise and manage to find food and water. »
At the beginning of April, while Maryana and her colleagues were traveling to a village to treat the wounded, the car they were in was bombed and then intercepted by Russian soldiers.
After getting them out of their car, emptying their pockets and raising their hands to the sky, the Russian military informed the members of the Ukrainian medical team that they were now prisoners of war. “They told us that if we tried to escape, they would shoot and kill us and that captivity was our only chance of survival. »
“At that point, I already knew I was pregnant,” says Maryana.
A stay in hell
During the first two days of her captivity, the young woman was kept in a barn, without heating. “We weren’t allowed to go to the toilet. We had to use a bucket. They looked at us like we were in a zoo. »
Then, the young woman was transferred to the infamous Olenivka prison, in the Donetsk region under Russian occupation. It was there that, on July 29, 2022, 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in a bombing, probably Russian. Maryana was then a few hundred meters from the scene of the tragedy.
As soon as she arrived at Olenivka prison, Maryana says she “began to understand what hell is like.” Russian fighters, sticks in their hands, awaited the prisoners on either side of a corridor which they had to cross. “Both women and men had to walk through the corridor and get beaten. »
Maryana, who had warned her jailers that she was pregnant, was exempted from this torture. “But they forced me to watch my companions being beaten and placed me between two dogs to intimidate me. »
The doctor was then locked in a cell designed for six people in which 40 prisoners were crammed. Even when pregnant, she slept directly on the floor. “After a month and a half of detention, we were able to go for a walk outside,” she says.
Every morning, the prisoners had to get up at 5 a.m. “We were deprived of sleep at night because the lights were always on. » Food was given to them, but randomly.
Maryana says she was able to count on the generosity of her companions in misfortune, who gave her portions of their ration. Day after day, the young woman, worried about her baby’s health, caressed his belly. “I was talking to my baby and telling him to take everything he needed. »
State of shock
When she was able to speak to her husband on the phone, Maryana informed him that she was pregnant. “He was in shock,” she remembers. He was worried and happy at the same time. He cried because he was not able to help me and told me that a prison is not a place to give birth. »
In her seventh month of pregnancy, Maryana felt pain and was able to see a doctor for the first time. “He said I needed to breathe fresh air. I was able to go out more regularly after that. »
Sometimes prisoners were exchanged. But by waiting, Maryana lost hope. “ [Les soldats] told me that no one was waiting for me and I started to believe them. We were constantly subjected to propaganda and moral pressure. It was exhausting. » Without forgetting the fear, which tormented her at every moment, that her baby, once born, would be taken away from her by Russian soldiers.
In her ninth month of pregnancy, Maryana was transferred to a hospital in Donetsk to give birth. But on September 18, the two soldiers who were watching her received a phone call, which would change the course of her story. “We asked them if I could be moved. And the doctor agreed. »
One to midnight
What followed was an incredible journey which allowed the young woman to take part in a prisoner exchange. On September 20, Maryana, about to give birth, was sent back to Olenivka, before being taken to Rostov airport, where she took a flight to Moscow. “There, prisoners left our group and others were added. »
Maryana was then put on a flight to Minsk, capital of Belarus, then on a bus to get closer to the Chernihiv region in Ukraine. And on September 21, 2022, “I crossed the border on foot,” she says with emotion. The exchange negotiated between Moscow and kyiv allowed more than 200 Ukrainian prisoners to regain their freedom that day.
Four days later, Maryana gave birth to her baby. “It’s a little girl we named Anna-Maria. » On September 25, the little miraculous will celebrate her first birthday. “My daughter is healthy and I am a free person now. I am happy,” slips the young mother, recalling having experienced “the scariest episode of [sa] life “.
The young woman vigorously criticizes the Russian Federation for violating international humanitarian law, she says, by keeping doctors like her captive. “Members of medical teams are not soldiers. They don’t kill, they save lives,” she recalls.