Co-founder of the association “The Power of the Marines” Alena Skuibida (photo: provided by the interviewees) Author: Katerina Goncharova
In Ukraine, thousands of wives, mothers, daughters and sisters are waiting for the return home of defenders captured by Russia. How women collect information about prisoners bit by bit, defend their rights and face life's challenges themselves, but do not give up – in the material of RBC-Ukraine.
March 8th went down in history as the day of women's struggle for their rights. Today, during the war, many Ukrainian women defend the rights of their loved ones and their brothers-in-arms.
RBC-Ukraine's interlocutors are women who amaze with their strength of spirit. They have had to endure many difficulties. Some of them know from personal experience what life is like under occupation, while others are struggling with a serious illness and at the same time trying to keep their own small business afloat.
Despite all the difficulties, they work together towards one goal – the return home of their relatives – captured marines who defended Mariupol in 2022. All the girls are co-founders of the “Power of the Marines” association, and each of them also carries out public activities in other organizations. Their example proves that no matter how difficult it is, you can't give up.
On March 8, girls say: “We dream not of flowers, but of hearing two words from our loved ones: “I'm home.”
Alena Skuibida. The volunteer said: “I don't know how to explain it correctly, but it's just awful in Mariupol right now.”
Alena and Andrey are originally from Berdyansk. The man is a soldier of the 501st separate marine battalion, 36th brigade. He was already on the front line several months before the start of the big war: the marines were among the first to meet the enemy. He and his brothers-in-arms were captured almost three years ago.
“I always say that he is not the only one in captivity. The guys are in captivity, all of them are ours. They were side by side with each other. In total, 1,271 marines from the 36th brigade are currently in captivity. Our defenders did simply unreal things in Mariupol. The marines are those who often take the first battles on all sections of the front,” Alena tells RBC-Ukraine.
At the beginning of the Great War, her husband told her: “Honey, pack your things little by little and pack your suitcases.” Then he began to contact less and less often: the Russians continued to conduct offensive actions, the intensity of the battles increased.
At the end of February, Andrey wrote: “Darling, I don't know where I am. I can't say for sure, but I think I'm somewhere near Mariupol.” He said that they had left, taking only weapons with them, without personal belongings or food supplies – there was simply no time to pack. She began looking for volunteers who could pass on something to Andrey and the other guys.
Alena with her husband Andrey before the full-scale invasion
I called one volunteer, but he said: “The situation is such that money doesn't matter now. I don't know how to say this and how to explain it correctly, but Mariupol is just awful now. Survival is more of a chance.” But he promised that he would pass on something if he could.
It was then that Alena began to understand that something terrible was happening. The full picture of events became clear only with time – when people who had survived the siege began to leave Mariupol.
The soldiers who got out of Mariupol said that their battalion was first on the outskirts of the city, and then gradually retreated to strategic points – factories. At Azovstal there was a real bunker – nine floors deep, with certain conditions for shelter. At the Ilyich plant there were no such protective structures – only a basement one and a half floors down, where all the wounded were taken. The soldiers were stationed there, trying to recover and receive at least minimal treatment.
Alena remembers the first time she had heard from her husband in a long time. It was around March 15. He hadn't contacted her for a week, and she felt something was wrong.
The phone rang at three in the morning. The number was unknown. She was so nervous that she didn't recognize it right away. At first she thought she was just imagining things. But it was him. He said he was wounded, but there were guys in much worse condition. And the doctors simply had nothing to treat him with.
Andrey and his fellow Marines were among the first to meet the Great War
“After the conversation, when he hung up, I just lay there, hugged the pillow and thought: ‘The main thing is that you’re alive,’” the interlocutor recalls.
In early April, information appeared that Andrei had been captured. Alena had not yet fully grasped the situation when she saw a video on a Telegram channel, and in it were Andrei and other captured fighters. She burst into tears. From helplessness, confusion, fear.
Now, three years later, relatives of prisoners who found themselves in the same situation turn to her. Now she can speak with a cool mind, clearly explain the algorithm of actions. But then she simply did not know what to do.
At that time, there was no well-established system for recording prisoners. All she could do was collect information from those who were released from captivity. For a long time, she had only one lead: somewhere, someone saw someone.
For a year and a half, the Red Cross did not confirm Andrei's captivity. She showed them a video of Andrei in captivity, even a photo from Elenovka. But in response she heard: “We need that side to officially hand over the list to us.” Only a year and a half later did they call her and say that Russia had handed over the list of captured servicemen.
She asked about his health, about the conditions of detention, tried to find out at least some details. But they could only confirm that he was in captivity, “because that's what we were told.” It turned out that the enemy side had not handed over an official document, but simply a piece of paper with names. It was impossible to confirm the authenticity of the list.
Alena Skuibida takes part in events dedicated to prisoners
Information about the prisoners is collected bit by bit
One day in early 2024, a new video of prisoners appeared online. There were about 20 men standing in it. Each was given the floor and asked to give his name. She found one of the freed men and asked if he recognized anyone from the video.
Then she opened Google Maps, found the colony building, and compared it with the footage she had seen. One of them showed a grate on the top floor. Google Maps showed the same place from above. The man released from captivity confirmed that this was the same colony. So, step by step, she and the girls collected information.
“Thanks to the Coordination Headquarters, which heard us many times, we managed to get people admitted to the colony for inspection at least a few times through the ombudsman. And at least for a week the conditions for the guys improved a little. But then everything returned to normal,” says Alena.
Andrey has been in the colony for 35 months already. The girl writes him letters once every two weeks. Of all the letters she sent him, he received only three. She herself has received one letter from Andrey in almost three years, written 8 months ago.
“For a year and a half he received nothing at all. I learned this from a letter from another prisoner who wrote to his wife and asked me to find and pass on information,” the girl says.
Ukraine is trying to get all the captives out, Alena assures. Families who are waiting for the men have personal accounts on the online platform where the information is updated.
For example, someone who has already been released from captivity gives evidence to the Coordination Headquarters and says: “I saw three people with whom I was imprisoned during such and such a period.” This information is recorded.
At the request of the released person, he can be given contacts of relatives of other prisoners so that he can contact them. However, says Alena, not everyone decides to do this: some guys do not want to communicate right away because of the events they have experienced. But even a short message from such people can be extremely important.
The girls have united into a community that allows them to receive information about the captives, facilitate their return and help other families who find themselves in the same situation.
According to Alena, it is very important for citizens to remember the prisoners, to go to protests, to support their relatives. When the guys return, they see that not only relatives and friends fought for them, but also ordinary people.
“Each such story is valuable, it needs to be told. It helps both the prisoners themselves and those who are still waiting for their return. Prisoners often say that while on Russian territory, they are like in an information bubble. Russians sometimes try to disorient them, to convince them that “nobody wants to exchange them,” that they have been forgotten. But in reality, this is not the case. Therefore, it is important that publicity does not cease, so that the world continues to put pressure on Russia to release them,” she emphasizes.
Tatyana Savenetskaya-Furs. “The Europeans asked for a break to recover from what they saw”
Tatyana's brother Rostislav Bogutsky served in the military orchestra of the 36th Marine Brigade named after Rear Admiral Mikhail Bilinsky: he was a creative person, played the saxophone. He was captured when the military was leaving the Ilyich plant in Mariupol.
“Even before the full-scale invasion began, in December 2021, the entire orchestra, 19 people, was sent to the city of Mariupol to raise the morale of their comrades. And to help organize food supplies. They were all captured together,” the woman recalls.
The soldier told his relatives about what was happening at that time in Mariupol without details: he tried to protect his family from the terrible news.
“But you could hear his anxiety in his voice. During the conversations on the phone, we heard explosions and shells exploding. My brother personally provided assistance in the so-called military hospital, which was quickly created right there, where it was possible. The guys helped as best they could. But he didn't tell us anything in more detail, because he was trying to protect us from unnecessary worries,” says Tatyana.
Before his captivity, Rostislav played in the orchestra of the 36th Marine Brigade named after Rear Admiral Mikhail Bilinsky
Rostislav's birthday is on March 29. The last call from him at that time was on April 3 – he rarely got in touch, only when the situation allowed. And on the 12th he and the guys were captured.
Some time later, it became known from Russian publics that all the orchestra musicians had been captured. But, unfortunately, they are not treated as musicians. They are treated as soldiers, the interviewee notes.
“They even came up with another separate type of torture specifically for musicians. They are forced to sing Russian songs for hours every day, including the anthem of the Russian Federation,” she says.
During almost three years in captivity, Rostislav's family received two letters from their defender. But, of course, these were letters with standard phrases. That they were doing well, that they were being fed. Such letters are carefully censored, and the military are afraid to say anything extra.
According to Tatyana, letters of approximately the same content come from almost all musicians who are in captivity. Even despite the fact that they are all in different colonies in different cities of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, those released from captivity say that they were held in terrible conditions. There is information about the critical health condition of those who are still being held there.
“There is information that everyone is losing weight, has broken ribs, and many have dislocated shoulder joints. My brother has a very serious mental condition and a complex heart disease. He had a congenital defect, but after all the torture he endured during his three years in captivity, his condition has significantly worsened,” Tatyana points out.
Rostislav's sister Tatyana takes part in international trips that draw attention to the issue of returning prisoners from the Russian Federation
She and other relatives of prisoners have joined forces and are helping the families of war prisoners musicians. These families are scattered all over the world. Some are in Ukraine, others have left the country because of the war.
“Not everyone has the opportunity to attend meetings, go to conferences to talk about the situation of their relatives,” says Tatyana, “I coordinate and represent all the families of captured musicians. One of the main tasks is to convey to the world the truth that musicians are creative people, and they need help, they need to be released. We already have one tortured musician – Svyatoslav. A saxophonist who was killed in captivity in 2022, and his body was returned only in 2023.”
Recently, representatives of the organization went to the European Parliament – they held a photo exhibition and event “Faces of Russian captivity”. They showed videos and photographs, told about the tortured musician Svyatoslav, so that the world could see what is really happening to Ukrainian prisoners in Russian colonies.
One of the wives of the captured musician wrote a song, dedicating it to her husband. Her child has never seen her father: the girl was born in December, several months before the Russian invasion. This heartfelt song was heard in the European Parliament.
“The Europeans were shocked. When we showed the first video, they even asked for a break to recover and come to their senses from what they had seen. They could not believe that in the 21st century, people who took musical instruments in their hands instead of weapons could be tortured so cruelly. And now we continue to work so that the whole world knows about our prisoners. We will continue to work and will not give up until we return and free all our guys,” the woman says.
Rostislav's brothers – orchestra musicians
Olga Kurtmallayeva: “My husband’s brothers-in-arms wrote that the entire battalion had disappeared”
Recently, it has been 35 months since Ruslan, Olga Kurtmallaeva's husband, has been in captivity. He, like the relatives of all our interlocutors today, was captured during the defense of Mariupol.
Olga witnessed a full-scale invasion in her native Berdyansk. Her husband is a professional military man, serving since 2014. Since December 2021, he has been in Shyrokyne.
In early March, on orders from the top leadership, the defenders stood up to defend Mariupol. On April 4, Ruslan was captured. Olga received news of this from her husband's comrades-in-arms, who were still in the city at that time. They wrote that the entire battalion had disappeared. And the very next day, she saw news about this on Russian Telegram channels.
“They captured 287 people at once. At the moment, the enemy has 1,281 marines in captivity, and that's only from the Mariupol garrison. Overall, there are more captured marines,” Olga recalls.
The families of the prisoners began to contact official bodies for information, and after about two weeks they received confirmation.
“Unfortunately, the Russian side through the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross – ed.) has not yet confirmed them. We learned information about our guys from those who were in the same cells or in the same prisons with them. The guys who returned from captivity gave this valuable information,” she says.
Olga with her husband Ruslan
Olga says that the ICRC mostly tells the families of prisoners that Russia is not allowing them in, and that they can do nothing about it, they can’t demand anything. Because in Russia they are in a position where they can only ask for something.
“In fact, there are very few colonies in the Russian Federation that the Red Cross has ever visited. And secondly, the prisoners themselves often say that they don't know where exactly they were held. But we know and we tell them about it ourselves. Because we have to look for information from scraps of data ourselves – we look, compare by table colors, by clothing, by the guys' testimonies, and other details. We look for common ground, what can unite them with others, and that's how we understand who is in which colony,” the woman says.
At the very beginning of her husband's captivity, she received one letter from him. At that time, her husband was in Taganrog – this was determined thanks to the color of the paper. The girls began to receive letters and compared the envelopes and shades of the sheets of paper on which something was written.
The girls hold many official and unofficial meetings: with officials, government bodies, volunteers and activists.
The letter was unusually white, with a grayish tint. Some of the girls already knew that their relatives were there, since this information was confirmed by the released prisoners. Thus, gradually, it was possible to establish the location of their loved ones.
It later became known that her husband had been transported several times. In total, he had changed at least four colonies, and each transfer was accompanied by new trials and tortures. The motives for moving the prisoners remain unclear to this day. They probably want to “cover their tracks” so that their relatives do not know where they are.
“Each case is truly unique. And you can't know when your relatives will be moved. Some have been in one place for three years, while others have been moved ten times. And there is no understanding why they do this, because the guys are not there by position, not by last name, not by the place where they were captured,” Olga notes.
She herself spent the first few months of the Great War under occupation, then left for Zaporozhye. There was massive shelling there, so the woman moved to the capital. According to her, it is easier to conduct public activities and participate in actions.
Before the Great War, she was treated for oncology: she underwent two courses of chemotherapy. Arriving in Kyiv, she felt very unwell. She went for an examination and found out that she had stage four cancer. Then she spent a year undergoing treatment and simultaneously attended meetings, events, and was involved in public association. She had to undergo more than 20 courses of “chemotherapy”.
“I am currently in remission, but I have to deal with the severe consequences of the disease. I don't know how many years it will take me to be able to simply live life like a normal person,” the woman says.
Olga is forced to fight cancer and at the same time seek the return of her husband and his brothers-in-arms
However, she does not lose heart and remains confident and resilient. She simply does not have time to keep negative thoughts in her head.
“I am the head of a public organization specifically for the 31st battalion. We also have the association “The Power of the Marines”. We have a total of 8 public organizations, and we do a lot of work to free people, to protect the rights of prisoners, as well as those who have already returned from captivity. And this takes a lot of time. I must say, sometimes there is not even enough time for some sad thoughts,” she admits.
Olga also runs an entrepreneurial business: she has her own small shop, which she managed to keep open while she was ill.
“So there is actually enough work. Now it is very gratifying that lately we have been seeing a new exchange every month, and this gives us the strength to believe that all our guys will be home,” she says.
***
At the moment, about 400 of those prisoners who were in Mariupol in early spring 2022 have been returned home. This is about a third of all the marines that the enemy captured during that period. In general, the Russians hold many more defenders from the marines, and the total number of captured soldiers is thousands of people. Some of them were returned tortured.
Today, wives, mothers, daughters and sisters wait daily for the defenders of the house. As well as for the return of all the brothers-in-arms, who have also become family to them during this time. And they seek the return of each of them.