A young girl’s only wish for the New Year will break your heart

Myroslava has spent most of her life at war and has only one wish for the coming year.

The two-year-old longs to be reunited with her father after he was captured by Russian forces during the siege of Mariupol, her former hometown in southern Ukraine.

Since his capture, Artem has had only one contact with his family: when her mother Hanna told her husband that a second child was on the way.

He is among 1,600 Mariupol defenders still held captive by Russian forces after a bitter 86-day battle to defend the city.

Hanna, 25, grew up in the once picturesque seaside port where she met, married and worked as a rehabilitation therapist with Artem.

The mother and her two daughters are now temporarily living as refugees in Germany and wonder whether they will see him again.

“This will be my beloved daughters’ second New Year’s Eve without their father and our second New Year’s Eve without a home,” said Hanna, who spoke by her first name.

“Despite our situation, no one really understands us because we choose not to celebrate holidays.” I have heard countless stories about Ukrainian soldiers who endured brutal conditions in Russian captivity, including inadequate nutrition and psychological and physical torture.

“Russia is not adhering to the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War.” I don’t trust them and think they will use Ukrainian prisoners for their own purposes as much as possible.

“Celebrating seems inappropriate to us and Myroslava’s only wish remains unchanged. She wants her father back.”

When the first explosions rang out on February 24, 2022, the family’s lives were shattered as the once thriving trading center on the Sea of ​​Azov turned to dust, rubble and ruin in the weeks that followed.

Ukrainian officials say at least 25,000 civilians were killed between April and May, while the United Nations estimates that 350,000 civilians were forced to evacuate the city.

“Before the large-scale Russian invasion, Mariupol was undergoing rapid development,” Hanna recalls.

“The most important moments of my life took place in Mariupol, I remember our beautiful brand new pier and the fantastic square near the Drama Theater.”

“I miss my hometown so much.”

Although Mariupol is close to Donetsk, which is occupied by a Russian proxy force, there was initially high confidence among residents that the country could withstand an attack.

“Nobody thought that Russia could besiege the city within a few days,” says Hanna. “Mariupol resembled a fortress where numerous security and military forces were stationed.”

Hanna saw Artem for the last time four days before the all-out invasion, when the soldier left, as usual, in the early morning hours for his duties with the Azov Brigade, a wing of the Ukrainian National Guard.

He called in the evening and explained that he had to stay longer.

On the night of February 24, mother and daughter were awakened by explosions outside their window.

Within days, vital services such as water, electricity and communications with the outside world were disrupted as Mariupol became the deadliest place in Ukraine until the siege ended in mid-May.

“We didn’t understand what was going on,” says Hanna.

“We figured out how many seconds we have to hide in a basement after different types of artillery fire.”

“Our lives were determined by the shelling plan.

“We even joked that the Russians probably ate three meals a day because we knew the exact times of silence.”

“It felt like we were living in a horror movie, but in this terrible reality we could only hope for a quick solution.”

While the advancing Russian troops ruthlessly and indiscriminately bombarded the destroyed city, Hanna and Myroslava managed to escape with the help of acquaintances who provided transportation.

She fled west to the port city of Berdyansk and then to Zaporizhia before eventually finding refuge in Germany.

“It was a moving journey,” says Hanna.

“On the way we came across burnt out cars and had to delete almost all the photos on our phones.”

“Our precious memories remain in Mariupol.”

When Hanna managed to restore communication, she learned that her husband had been injured in a battle.

This was the only information she received before he and his comrades from various parts of the Ukrainian armed forces, who were entrenched in the steel plant in the Azov Valley, surrendered.

Artem was among the Ukrainian soldiers who eventually emerged from the garrison without ammunition and many of them were seriously injured.

On May 16, 2022, he surrendered to Russian captivity.

A German family sheltered Hanna and Myroslava, and she gained weight as she began to recover from the trauma of fleeing the war zone.

When she went to the hospital for a check-up a month after her husband’s surrender, she was surprised to discover that she was five months pregnant.

“I felt a mixture of happiness and fear,” says Hanna.

“I prayed for my husband’s safety and hoped it wasn’t a cruel fatal blow. I hoped God wouldn’t give me another child instead of him.’

On June 14, she received a call from Artem, the only time she has ever heard her husband’s voice from captivity. She told him that he would soon become a father for the second time.

He is among 1,600 Ukrainian soldiers held captive by Russia amid countless stories of war crimes, abuse and torture.

On July 29, a building in a Russian-run prison in Olenivka, Donetsk, was destroyed, killing about 60 Ukrainian prisoners of war. The majority consisted of troops from the Azov Valley Redoubt.

“It was a lot of stress for me. I waited there for the prisoner list and scanned every photo, afraid to discover my husband’s name,” says Hanna. “It was only in May 2023, when some of my husband’s comrades were released, that I heard that he had been injured there and still had fragments in his body.”

Erika was born in October 2022 and Myroslava will be three years old in January.

The eldest sister understands the concept of a child having a father and a mother, asks about Artem every day and sends him “good night” wishes.

Explaining the harsh reality to such an innocent little child was one of Hanna’s biggest challenges.

It is part of a campaign to keep the prisoners in the eyes of the world as the Middle East and other parts of the battlefield in Ukraine dominate the headlines.

Under the banner of the Azovstal families, the family members have come together to do what they can for the prisoners and for each other.

The group says Russia has concealed the conditions and whereabouts of prisoners for the past 19 months, while freedmen report barbaric torture and killings.

Among them is Aiden Aslin, a British citizen who fought with Kiev’s marines before surrendering at the Illich steel mill north of the Azov Valley plant and initially sentenced to death.

Originally from Nottingham, he described how he was tortured and turned into a “propaganda zombie”, in breach of the Geneva Convention, before being released as part of a prisoner swap.

According to the families, the last major prisoner swap took place six months ago – the longest time without a deal.

*Artem is a pseudonym