"Snowmelt and pigeon soup". Stories of women who have been waiting for their husbands from captivity for over a year

On April 4, 2023, relatives and friends of the 501st Marine Battalion marked a tragic anniversary — about 265 marines who held the defense of the Azovmash and Illich plants in Mariupol spent a year in Russian captivity. They disappeared from their positions without warning. The next day, Russian Telegram channels announced that the Ukrainian defenders had surrendered. The video showed unarmed men walking with their hands up.

The circumstances of those events are not known for certain. The military unit conducted an internal investigation into the voluntary surrender. However, it did not provide any evidence or make any information public. The State Bureau of Investigation opened a case against the battalion command for abuse of power. Soldiers of the 501st Battalion are involved in the case. However, since June 2022, the families have been receiving no payments. They filed a lawsuit. State institutions refrain from commenting until the investigation is completed.

The last eight prisoner swaps did not include any marines from the 501st Battalion. Over the entire period of the Russo-Ukrainian war, only 23 were released.

While the families of PoWs are searching for the truth, they have no doubt about one thing: their husbands are heroes.

We present three stories of the wives of captured soldiers of the 501st Battalion of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy.

Alina

"It was a set-up trap," says 25-year-old Alina, the wife of Marine Andriy. She does not disclose her husband's last name for safety reasons.

"The enemy knew about all their actions, movements, bases and even plans. There are rumors that two members of the battalion sided with the Russians and doomed the rest. The version that our guys surrendered voluntarily appeared in the enemy's Telegram channels. But how can we trust them — they constantly portray our soldiers as monsters who kill civilians, rape people and animals. 

I don't understand what kind of voluntary surrender can be possible in Mariupol. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the time: ‘If you can come out to save your life, come out’. All the defenders of Mariupol, the defenders of Azovstal, were taken prisoner. But unlike ours, they received guarantees of return," says Alina.

Andriy went on a rotation to Mariupol in early March.

"The last time we met was on December 5, 2021, at 5 a.m. he went to the Joint Forces Operation zone. The full-scale invasion caught him in the village of Shyrokyne on the Donetsk axis, 400 meters from the contact line. For their unit, this war began on February 16. Intense fighting continued, but they did not realize that it would spread to the whole country. On February 28, Andriy said they had almost nothing left to fight back with. The enemy was shooting with artillery, warplanes, and tanks. And they had nothing. The last time they received food was on February 25. They could not get food, medicine as there were no deliveries. The 501st Battalion was the last to leave the positions on the Donetsk axis," the woman recalls.

The commander of the 501st Battalion, Mykola Biriukov, was also taken prisoner by Russia and is still there.

"Other commanders — defenders of Azovstal who were captured — were released and sent to Turkey for rehabilitation. But no one has had any information about Biriukov for over a year. Soldiers returning from captivity say that he was a commander who took care of his men. He did not eat or sleep when one of the soldiers did not get in touch. He could shed light on the circumstances of this captivity. 

We have responses from an SBI investigator to both the collective appeal and to each of us. I was told that there is no case of voluntary surrender against my husband. Together with other relatives of the military, we appealed to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Defense Intelligence, the President's Office, and the Ombudsman. None of the authorities give a clear answer as to what they are accused of and when they will be released. 

The Red Cross calls me four times a year, asking if I have any news about my husband. I laugh, because they should be the ones to provide me with information, not the other way around. 

We find out about our relatives through those released from captivity and various Telegram channels that post lists of prisoners. During the last eight exchanges, not a single soldier from the 501st Marine Battalion has been returned. 

The families of the prisoners of war and I filed a lawsuit against the non-payment. Representatives of the military unit were supposed to come to the hearing and provide the acts of the investigation they conducted. But they did not do so," says Alina.

She has a one-and-a-half-year-old son waiting for Andriy.

"When our boy was born, my husband promised that this would be the last contract. I don't tell my son that his father is in captivity, he is still small. But every day I show him a photo of my husband.

When I tell him that his dad will be back soon and we will go to meet him, the kid smiles and then starts crying. Maybe because they have a very strong connection, even his first word was ‘dad’. He misses his father. On the street, he reaches out to all the men and asks to be held by them. 

I dream about the day of his return. I want to conduct a full medical examination of my husband and feed him with my borshch, which he loves," says Alina.

Olha

The wife of a fighter with the 501st Marine Battalion, 23-year-old Olha, was caught up in the war in Berdiansk. She spent several months under occupation.

"On February 24, I was in Berdiansk, and my husband was in Shyrokyne. I was sleeping soundly, I did not wake up from the explosions. At 7 am, I was woken up by a call from a friend as her husband serves with mine. She said: ’Olya, this is war’. 

The war in Ukraine has been going on since 2014, and I thought that active hostilities had begun. But then I checked the news and realized everything. 

After eight years of war, you get used to it. I did not feel anxious. I went to the store, bought some cat food, gave it to the cat for a few days, and went to my friend, who was scared. 

I was worried about my husband. I knew that he was on the contact line holding back the enemy, that there were heavy battles going on. The Russians started to pull up equipment. My husband takes care of me, so he often does not tell me bad news. But in a phone conversation on February 16, he asked me if I wanted to go to my friends in Poland. He convinced me: ‘Something is starting to happen’. But I felt safer with him, and I said I wasn't going anywhere," Olha recalls.

On February 27, 2022, Russian troops entered Berdiansk.

"The real anxiety came when my husband started shouting down the phone: ‘Take cover, it’s fighter jets’. I looked up and saw an enemy fighter jet flying so low that it seemed like it could hit me right in the head. My friend and I went down to the basement and stayed there for several hours. When I came out to get some air (we live at the entrance to the city), I saw the Russians. It was the worst thing in the whole war. 

No one understood what was going to happen. But everyone heard that they were shooting, raping, and torturing people. My friend and I first went back to the bomb shelter, and then we decided it was better to go home. From the fourth floor, we saw tanks coming in and Russian soldiers entering the city. 

When the occupiers seized the administrative buildings, people started gathering for rallies. They shouted: ‘No one invited you, go home’. It was clear that young Russians were shocked. The older ones and officers probably realized that no one was waiting for them here. For me, those rallies were a salvation, as I was distracted for a few hours from thinking about my husband in the besieged Mariupol," says Olha.

In the very first days in Berdiansk, the occupiers began detaining activists, and a month later, the rallies were dispersed by shooting people.

"The rallies stopped when people were taken to torture chambers. They were tortured with electric shocks in the city prison. One of the activists was detained, and a few days later a video was released in which he apologized for his actions. It was clear that he was badly beaten. 

After that, the resistance was quiet. When the Kalush band won the Eurovision Song Contest, I ordered a pink panama hat from a seamstress. People in the city smiled and supported me, even though they didn't say a word. 

It's hard to admit it, but before the great war, I think 40 percent of the population supported Russia. After the occupation, it became many times less. 

In the summer, people from the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts came to Berdiansk to rest by the sea, and their children wore panamas with a Z patch. I would come home and cry. Although I realized that I was lucky: no one turned me in, no one spoke about my husband. 

On the streets, the occupiers were checking phones. They could detain you for watching Ukrainian news or photos. People sent personal information to those who had left to keep it safe," Olha recalls.

Olha left the occupied Berdiansk at the end of summer.

"I couldn't go before because I was treating cancer. The medicine had to be kept frozen. And then people stood in line for days to leave. I could not have brought the medicines along. I am still struggling with this disease. 

Ukrainian communication in Berdiansk was jammed. But my husband and I managed to talk five times in the last month before the captivity, in March 2022. The other girls received fewer calls. Later I found out that they risked their lives to make a call in occupied Mariupol, sneaking to some higher ground to catch the network. 

In our conversations, I asked how they were doing. He would say: ‘Don't worry, dear, we'll go to Crimea in the summer’. He made me promise that when he returned, we would have three sons. He took advantage of the moment, because I wouldn't have promised him that easily. 

While waiting for his call, I was gathering good news. I told him who had sent us what weapons. And when I hung up the phone, tears flowed. 

On March 26, he called for the last time before his capture, and on the 27th he found the Internet and sent his photo. 

We saw from Russian Telegram channels that they were in captivity. I am sure they had no way to inform the authorities. Every day cost the guys 20-30 lives. They were not brought ammunition, medicine, or food. They had flour and water, mixed it, and fried it somehow," the woman says.

Payments to the families of the 501st Marine Battalion prisoners of war were suspended. The letter with this notification came from the military unit on June 19.

"People from Mariupol and Berdiansk grabbed their children and fled the city. Among them are wives of prisoners of war. They have nothing to live off. They are standing in lines for humanitarian aid, asking people for help. But even the soldiers released from captivity have not been paid. In particular, the medic of the 501st Marine Battalion, Mariana Mamonova. 

She called the Navy Command of the Armed Forces, the Coordination Headquarters, and the Human Rights Ombudsperson. Everyone says that this is an absurd situation, but we have not been able to resolve it for a year. 

Everyone is interested in how they got captured. I would like to ask if there was another way out of Mariupol. When Oleksiy Arestovych was on the air back then, he said a phrase that made me hate him: ‘Those who believe that the de-blockade of Mariupol is possible are complete fools’.

I talked to guys and girls who returned from captivity. They all have different versions of the events: they were promised a ‘green corridor’, they were set up, they went out to break through. Someone said it was a relocation, but everyone was in different positions. We don't know the truth. 

I could not discuss these issues with my husband. In a few minutes of conversation, I only managed to ask if he and his comrades were okay. He said: ‘Write down the phone numbers of those whom we could not reach. Tell their families that they are alive’. 

When my husband comes back, I will do what no psychologist recommends: I will stick like a limpet to him. We will go camping to the forest, where no one will see or hear us. I'll bury my face in his chest and finally cry," Olha admits.

Alyona

Alyona, 26, a bride of a soldier from the 501st Marine Battalion, was talking to her fiancé Andriy on the eve of leaving occupied Mariupol on March 27, 2022.

"I was traveling from occupied Berdiansk to Zaporizhzhya with my friend and my black cat Lexus. Then Andriy joked: ‘You'd better restrain Lexus so he doesn't bite the occupiers at the checkpoint’. I remember how two men approached us: ‘You're not going anywhere, our friends in Chechnya need such beautiful brides’. There was silence on the bus until they turned to two boys of about 15 years old. They told them to get off the bus, because "in Chechnya, men have been holding guns since the age of 14, so there is no need to run away with women from us." We were lucky, they didn't hurt anyone." 

It was only at the end of last year that Alyona managed to find information about Andriy's captivity.

"For a long time there was no information at all. I only knew that all the prisoners were going through Olenivka. Then they were sent to Taganrog. Before the New Year, I saw my husband on a video in the occupiers’ Telegram channel. I found this colony through Google Maps. They are sitting under a roof with a grate — I recognized this place in the photo. I wrote to one prisoner who was released. He confirmed that this is where they were kept. He was in the cell next door to Andriy. 

I wrote to all the authorities. A few months later, I received confirmation of his status as a prisoner of war. Until then, he was considered missing. 

This cellmate told me that when they were transferred from one place to another, they would "accept" newcomers — a soldier would walk down the corridor and be beaten. At each place of detention, they are interrogated. He said that Andriy is holding up well. They are trying to break the Ukrainian military there. The Russians have a task from the top leadership to do everything to make ours go over to their side. They realize that Mariupol, Berdiansk, Melitopol are occupied cities. If the majority of the military from there go over to the enemy, their families will do the same. This is their strategy for capturing cities. 

They told the prisoners that they had already captured Kyiv, showed them photoshopped newspapers with such headlines. They forced them to go on talk shows and admit that they had killed and tortured civilians. The guys said they were mechanics, they were turning screws, or simply refused to talk," the woman says.

Alyona's fiancé was wounded during the defense of Mariupol.

"Since the beginning of March, Andriy has been near Mariupol. There was no communication. He called twice from the hospital when he received a bullet wound to the shoulder blade. I asked for a photo. The wound was open, serious. I asked why they couldn't sew it up or at least put staples in it. He replied that medicines are needed for people with more complicated injuries. He had only one treatment plan: to keep it wrapped and move on. I later learned from Mariana Mamonova that his wound had healed. 

They had run out of medicine and food at the time. Andriy wrote: ‘Kitty, I'm near Mariupol, I don't know where’. And he sent a list of necessities. I found a volunteer and raised the money. But he said that money was useless. Nothing was working in Mariupol anymore, there was no communication. The guys melted snow and cooked soup from pigeons. 

I believe that when Andriy returns, we will be able to compensate for all the horrors we have experienced with the good things that the future holds for us. But first of all, I will fulfill my beloved's request — I will bring Lexus the cat," says Alyona.

Author: Iryna Shevchenko