Ukrainian paramedic Yulia Paevsk, whose footage of frontline medical work in the once-besieged city of Mariupol was featured on TV screens across the world, recounted her experience as a captive of Russian forces at a press event on 10 November at Brussels’ Ukrainian Civil Society Hub at the European Parliament.
Known by her alias, Tayra, Paevsk became a volunteer front-line medic in 2014, following Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the start of the war in Donbas. Alongside other volunteer medics, Tayra launched “Tayra’s Angels”, a volunteer frontline medic group. For her actions, Tayra received the People’s Hero Award in Ukraine.
Following the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Tayra travelled to Mariupol to provide medical support to injured civilians and military personnel during the siege of the city. Her go-pro footage revealed the horrors of war, as she treated serious injuries and witnessed the deaths of children and adults alike.
“Universal values are exactly what I am, what I have been leaning towards all my life. That's why I took the paramedic's bag and not the weapon. That is why I took care of our wounded soldiers, our civilians on the front line. And I treated my enemies like a human being.” recounted Paevsk. “Unfortunately, universal human values are incomprehensible to our enemies, and they paid me back with cruelty.”
On 17 March, while travelling with a colleague, Tayra was captured by Russian forces and imprisoned in Donetsk, an eastern Ukrainian city held by Russian proxies since 2014. For more than 100 days, Tayra was imprisoned by Russian forces, who subjected her to torture and deplorable conditions.
“I can only talk about some things because an investigation is ongoing, but I can say that beatings were absolutely normal,” Tayra told The Brussels Times. “They have specially equipped rooms for torture. They also used psychological abuse, constant humiliation, constant lies that Ukraine had already been destroyed.”
Credit: Yuliia Paievska
In order to manipulate Paevsk and other detainees, Russian jailers used threats against relatives and children to try to force cooperation, refused to give information about killed loved ones, and openly bragged of Ukrainian children shipped to Russia for adoption. They also deprived detainees of food and kept prisoners in “terrible” conditions. In her over 100 days of imprisonment, Paevsk was never given fresh clothes, and allowed to bathe just once.
“All this system, it’s not by accident. This is normal for them. You just have to monitor the events within Russia itself. You will see that they treat their own citizens in Russia in the same way. So why would they feel sorry for us and to those that they refuse to consider human,” she said.
During her detention, Tayra’s daughter, Anna-Sophia, rallied the international community on behalf of her mother and other civilian and military prisoners held by Russia. On 27 April, Anna-Sophia travelled to Brussels and raised awareness about her mother and other women held in cruel conditions by Russian forces, even meeting with EU Commissioner for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica.
Now free after being liberated in a prisoner exchange, Tayra and her daughter have continued their fight on behalf of the more than 500 women captured by Russia.
Credit: Mission of Ukraine to the EU
“Rest assured, all their crimes will be recorded and documented for a future tribunal. I would like this to be held as soon as possible. I believe that these terrible times will end and Ukraine will be free. We will defeat the enemy, and throw them out of our land,” Paevsk said.
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While the medic is now free from detention, Tayra warned that she, and other detainees and those who lost their loved ones in Mariupol, will not soon forget the destruction caused by Vladimir Putin and his troops.
“The Ukrainian nation is very sincere, very friendly with our allies, but we have a very good memory. For the Russians, perhaps it seems that everything has been forgotten… but we will not forget anything. These relatives will not forget what happened as well, just as the grandchildren of those who survived the Holodomor will never forget as well,” she said.
Tayra thanked the European community and fellow Ukrainians for helping to facilitate her release and called on Ukraine’s western allies to continue their support of the Ukrainian armed forces and attempts to free those captured by Russian forces.
