Letters from captivity: "Don't worry, mom: I had dinner, and I'm warm"

"We have food, water and clothing"

Geneva Conventions provide the right of prisoners of war to exchange letters with their families. However, after many months of captivity, some relatives received the first letters, which were written at the end of May - the beginning of June, only now. Most families do not even have even that. The letters were carefully checked: this is evidenced by the stamp on them. It took three months to receive those letters. They reached their addresses only after three long months.

Three families hromadske spoke with said that the letters contained the same phrase, only worded differently. "I eat well, I sleep peacefully, I am dressed properly, and I don't need anything."

"It was clear that this phrase was a mandatory condition for writing a letter," says the mother of POW Dmytro Seliutin.

The relatives do not doubt that these letters are from their loved ones. They recognized the handwriting and details only the one who wrote could know.

Letter with errors

The morning of April 12, the family of 28-year-old military doctor Maryna Holinko began with her short message. The woman wrote from Illich Steel and Iron Works in Mariupol.

"She wrote that it's very scary, part of the bomb shelter is under the rubble, and they don't know what will happen next," says her sister Aliona Koval, barely holding back tears. "She said she loves us very much and asked us not to cry."

After that message, communication with Maryna was completely cut off. On April 28, her family saw her photo in one of the propagandist Telegram channels. They realized that Maryna was in captivity. Later they received official confirmation.

"An exchange takes place, you read the list and realize that your relatives are not there. You are happy for those who managed to return, but your heart is empty. Because horror continues for us," says Alyona.

Maryna's letter is dated June 2. She writes that she is in the territory of the Russian Federation, feels well, is looking forward to meeting her relatives, and asks them not to cry. Alyona says that her sister does not know how to write in Russian, because of that there are spelling mistakes in every line. It is obvious that Marina was required to write the letter in Russian so that the supervisors could understand what she was writing about.

"Maryna also asked to pick up her stuff from Odesa, if possible. That is, when she wrote the letter, she was not sure that Ukraine still exists," thinks the sister.

On April 13, President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded more than 200 service members. Maryna Holinko, senior lieutenant of the medical service, also received the Order for Courage.

"A resort"

On March 8, Natalia Seliutina, the mother of Dmytro Seliutin, a combat medic at the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, received the last message from her son. Later, the woman received all the information from his brothers and POWs returning from captivity. That's how she found out that on the night of April 11 to 12, Ukrainian soldiers broke through the Illich Steel and Iron Works in Mariupol. Dmytro was riding in the back of the truck with the wounded, and that's when he was captured. The Russian side confirmed that it is holding Seliutin.

At the end of August, the International Committee of the Red Cross notified the woman, "The state of health of the son is satisfactory, his whereabouts are unknown." "How is it possible? You know about his state of health, but you don't know his whereabouts?" asks Natalia.

On August 24, she was informed by phone that a letter had been sent to her. The mother received the only clear news about her son on August 30, exactly three months after the letter was written.

"We're well nourished, we sleep eight hours a day. They dressed us, washed and treated us humanely here. In general, it's like a resort."

The son assured me that everything was fine with him. He said that during captivity, he quit smoking, he exercises, goes for a walk, and prays a lot. He asked for forgiveness from her and his father.

Natalia took the letter to the military psychologist. He noticed many hints. In particular, after the phrase "it's like a resort," there is a smiley.

"A military psychologist told me that these words can be trusted."

"I will definitely return home soon"

On April 6, Olena Kryvtsova, a medic at the 555th Mariupol Military Hospital of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, contacted her husband for the last time. "She replied that there was almost no connection, and there was little technical water. And she doubted that she would get in touch in the near future," Andrii Kryvtsov, the brother of Olena's husband, told hromadske.

Olena and her husband are doctors. They have been working in Mariupol since 2020. Before the start of the full-scale invasion, Yurii was on the front line, and Olena was at her workplace.

Her relatives learned that she was in captivity on April 12. The wife of one of the doctors of the 555th hospital wrote to Yurii about this. Since then, there has been no information from Olena for many weeks. Official confirmation that Kryvtsova was captured came in mid-July. And a month later — on August 22 — the family received a letter from Olena, and Andrii Kryvtsov published it on his page on social networks.

"The letter came for a reason. Before that, Iryna Vereshchuk called Olena's mother, told about it, and assured her that she would monitor the issue of female POWs and personally control everything. That is, the goal of our publicity is being implemented — the authorities started to react," Kryvtsov wrote. According to him, almost 700 such letters were received.

Olena wrote her letter on the second day of summer.

"She apologized that it happened that way. She wrote that there was a ghostly opportunity to leave everything and try to get out of the Ilich factory, but she decided to stay with the wounded. She could not throw them away because she was responsible for them. Olena gave her freedom for the lives of our boys. I wrote to mother to hold on as the mother has a sick heart," says Andrii Kryvtsov. Now, he coordinates the families of captured medics.

In the letter, Olena also mentioned that she had nothing material left but added, "But we will earn everything!"

"I'm writing a text, I feel like crying. But I promised myself that only you would see my tears [...] Take care of yourself! And I will definitely return home soon [...] I love you very, very much! I'm just madly homesick, and there isn't a second when I don't think about home. We just have to believe and pray."

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Relatives wrote letters in response. They do not know whether they have reached their loved ones.