Life For A Family Of A Donetsk Airport Cyborg Killed In Separatist Captivity

Halyna Konoshenko’s husband was a fighter in the 90th battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On January 20, 2015 he was captured defending Donetsk airport when the separatist forces overran the Ukrainian positions. For several months Halyna waited for news of her husband and continued to believe that he was alive and would soon be exchanged in a prisoner swap. However, she later discovered that Ruslan had been murdered by the separatist forces while being kept as a prisoner of war.
It is a year since the battle for the airport began. Those that fought on the government side, including her husband, were popularly nicknamed Cyborgs for their seemingly super-human ability to hold out against the separatists forces.
Halyna is now the sole carer of their children. They live together in an 18 sqm apartment. They had three children together: a 20 month old toddler, a 5 year old and another who is almost 10. The family survives on the kindness of acquaintances, donations and volunteers.
The house which the Konoshenko family lives in is an old army barracks which was transferred to local authorities. When volunteers highlighted the cramped conditions Halyna and her children were living in the mayor of Kamenets-Podolskiy personally came to help them. He replaced the doors, partitioned the room to create a room for the children and carry out an overall repair job on the place.
// Nikita Mekenzin.