Mom, who is Uncle Vova and why is he the president of the whole world?

КА: Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?

ЕС: Hello?

КА: Hello?

ЕС: Yeah, I couldn't hear you for some reason.

КА: Yes-yes, hello, Katya, thank you for finding time to talk with me.

ЕС: Hello.

КА: First of all, I understand that this is, well, kind of a reason for joy, but in wartime conditions - what a great joy it is that you and your family are together again now. There are no words to express how, what a great-great joy this is, I'm really very happy for you.

ЕС: Thank you very much.

КА: Let's, before I start asking any questions, maybe you have some questions for me that I can address before we start talking?

ЕС: Ah, no, there don't seem to be any.

КА: Okay. Good. Look, let me now tell you about the framework of our conversation. I will naturally be asking about your experience of captivity, as much as you can tell about it: how it was for you, how you went through it, how you returned home. And we'll focus, mainly, on what happened after your captivity, how you got your child back from the occupiers, how your husband was able to return home, how this process happened in general. That is, we'll talk about your captivity, but for the most part we'll focus on how you saved the two closest people to you, having just gone through captivity yourself. Let's start from the very beginning then, can you tell a bit about your background, how you ended up in captivity, where you were at that moment, what was happening?

ЕС: I'm deputy of the hospital... Damn, well, I'll be switching to Ukrainian language, is that okay?

КА: Well, if something is unclear to me, I'll ask again, okay?

ЕС: Yeah. I've been working in this position since '21. Well, I had just started. I've been in the army for a long time overall - since 2013, when I entered the academy. That counts as military service for us. I went on contract in 2016. My first unit was the 55th artillery from Zaporizhzhia, it's located in the city. Then I went on maternity leave, then after maternity leave I came back, transferred to Mariupol closer [to home], Igor went into the army in 2018. Well, it turns out during the time when I was on maternity leave.

КА: Igor - is that your husband?

ЕС: Yes. And, it turns out, when the contract ended in '21, I came to the position "command officer" - that's what it's called now. Since we had a small staff, that's what it was called, but now, well, it doesn't really play that role anyway, but when they expanded the staff, it started being called again "deputy commander of military unit for moral-psychological support". It turns out, deputy of the hospital for educational work, well, or I don't know how to say it in Russian - for moral-psychological support, like that. Deputy of the hospital for moral-psychological support, like that.

Well, we served, and one fine day... You watched those videos, how that Putin spoke - before that full-scale invasion there was his video, when he signed those papers, that he recognized the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic as part of Russia [editor's note: the annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk regions happened later, at the beginning of the invasion Putin only recognized the independence of these territories]. And already then we understood that something serious would happen. But still there were hopes until the last moment... Even you know, I was in Olenivka, it seemed to me that any moment now, our forces would take everything back, because the frontline kept changing. Well, we were in an information vacuum, since we had no communication, nothing. There was no internet, no electricity, gas, water...

КА: This was when you were in Mariupol, right?

ЕС: Yes-yes, in Mariupol. All infrastructure support ended around March 2 [2022], because the last time I talked with my daughter was March 2 by video. And that's it, then there was nothing anymore. Igor only managed to call grandmother, because she had a push-button phone. He would go, there was such a "Kyivstar" center, he would catch signal there in the city center above [the store] "Thousand Little Things", but then they demolished the tower there too. Then again at "Kyivstar" they connected something, it still, in general, somehow worked. March 15 was the first time they seriously shelled us, despite the fact that our military unit commander... We turned to volunteers, since we didn't have the means to make a white flag with a red cross. In wartime conditions this is how they mark that wounded are being helped there - not necessarily military. It's not a military-strategic object, well, medics, they are, according to the Geneva Convention, they're not combatants. We thought they wouldn't even take us into captivity, you understand, now they'll figure it out, look at who we are, ask what our positions are, and that's it, and they'll let us go. We even heard that there were agreements, they were saying their conditions over radios there. This was already when they were shelling us - [they were agreeing] that they would take men, but women and wounded they, well, wouldn't take into captivity, you understand. Well, we hoped until the last moment that they had humanity, solidarity, honor, dignity. We understood later that there was nothing. We could bring approximately 17 to 24 wounded in about two hours. And they were given help, and these were civilian people, these were children. We saved children, there, because, oh, [phone] is ringing, can I call you back? Now, three seconds.