‘Russians invaded my home and held a Ukrainian soldier captive there’

Marina Perederii’s house within the small mining metropolis of Vuhledar in jap Ukraine was her satisfaction and pleasure.

17 Sadovaya Avenue was little greater than a shell when she and her husband purchased it.

They lovingly renovated the home, portray cherry blossom and doves – symbols of affection and well-being – of their bed room. They constructed a swimming pool within the backyard and a sauna within the basement.

“Every part was deliberate with such ardour,” she tells the BBC World Service. However the peace wasn’t to final.

In February 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Marina’s husband went to struggle whereas she took their youngsters and ran. Earlier than fleeing, she recorded what she thought may very well be her final glimpse of their house.

“My pricey home, I don’t know if you’ll stand or not. I don’t know if we’ll ever return right here… or if we’ll even survive in any respect,” she mentioned in a video.

The following time she noticed her house was a 12 months later in February 2023, by the eyes of a Russian soldier, in bodycam footage posted on social media.

A marine going by the title Fima was in her lounge, flicking by photographs of Marina and her household. “Lovely,” he mentioned, taking a look at one photograph.

It was a chilling picture that made her offended. “I want I had taken the albums with me,” Marina says.

Ukraine spent two and a half years defending Vuhledar earlier than Russia took management of town firstly of October.

In the course of the lengthy battle, in late January 2023, Fima had led a bunch of troopers to the suburbs and obtained caught in heavy combating on Sadovaya Avenue. He and a few others entered Marina’s house.

As his bodycam footage went viral again house, Fima was hailed as a hero. Official paperwork present that he was recalled from the entrance in February 2023 due to a leg wound.

However what the footage didn’t present was that the Russians had been preserving a Ukrainian soldier captive in Marina’s basement, who was ravenous and in determined want of medical care. His title was Oleksii.

Earlier than the warfare, Oleksii labored as an IT specialist. When Russia invaded his nation, he volunteered to struggle and later grew to become a drone operator in Vuhledar. His love of dancing earned him the nickname Dancer.

When the Russians broke by Ukrainian traces in late January 2023, Oleksii and his comrades tried to retreat, however a few of them, together with Oleksii had been shot.

Wounded, they had been taken from home to accommodate by Russian troopers, with Oleksii ultimately ending up within the basement of Marina’s house.

He was held captive for nearly a month – Russian footage uploaded on-line exhibits him wrapped in one in every of Marina’s carpets.

When the Russian troopers ultimately retreated, they left Oleksii behind. In all he spent 46 days in Marina’s home and for a lot of that point he had barely any meals or water.

Injured, ravenous and dehydrated, he was unable to depart the constructing.

“I used to be capable of finding some crumbs on the ground,” he tells the BBC World Service from Kyiv.

“There was a chunk of cracker, which a mouse stole from me at night time. I hid it, after which the mouse in all probability stole it as a result of I couldn’t discover it.”

However starvation was nothing in comparison with thirst. At some point, after the Russians had left, the determined want for water virtually killed Oleksii.

He tore panels from the sauna within the hope that there could be water contained in the pipes. He managed to interrupt one open and drank a number of the liquid inside, but it surely was antifreeze. These few sips precipitated inner burns and had been almost deadly.

Then, in March that 12 months, when Ukrainian forces retook elements of Vuhledar and reached Sadovaya Avenue, one other video from Marina’s house went viral. It exhibits ex-New Zealand soldier Kane Te Tai getting into quantity 17 and discovering Oleksii.

“New Zealand, New Zealand, it’s me!” Oleksii shouts at his colleague, who had travelled to struggle for Ukraine. Te Tai died in battle simply two weeks later.

Oleksii was carried out of the home and to security.

Had he been left just some extra days, Oleksii says he wouldn’t have made it.

A number of different Ukrainian and Russian troopers are recognized to have died in and round Sadovaya Avenue through the battle for Vuhledar.

“Thank God Oleksii survived. However the truth that folks died in my home, it shocked me,” she says. “There’s solely loss of life in there.”

The BBC World Service requested the Russian Ministry of Defence about Oleksii’s therapy however acquired no response.

Half a 12 months after Oleksii’s rescue, his Russian captor was being lauded at house. He was not simply referred to by his name signal, Fima, however by his first title, Andrei. State TV footage exhibits him re-enacting the Vuhledar assault and sharing his experiences with major college youngsters, the place academics current him as a hero.

The BBC in contrast this footage with pictures of Andrei from tons of of social media profiles and located a match – the identical hairline, the identical mole on the neck, and clear proof of a leg damage.

His full title is Andrei Efimkin – a 28-year-old born in Russia’s Far East.

We contacted him and requested in regards to the video from Sadovaya Avenue, notably the place he flicked by the photographs of Marina’s household. He advised us he was enjoying a “psychological trick” on himself because of the incoming gunfire.

“I grabbed the album and began wanting on the photographs to distract myself,” he mentioned.

“, really, I felt so cold-blooded. For a second, to be sincere, these ideas ran by my thoughts – about who lived right here.”

However when requested about Marina instantly, Efimkin mentioned he didn’t need to reply any extra questions and ended the decision.

Marina is now in Germany. As time passes, she is making an attempt to construct a brand new life, study a brand new language and discover bits of labor right here and there – however she nonetheless grieves her misplaced house in Vuhledar.

“It’s so exhausting. I can nonetheless see my home in my goals, it’s all the time in my head. I nonetheless hope that Ukraine will win and every thing might be superb, we’ll come again,” she says.

“My land is there, the air is mine.”

However again on Sadovaya Avenue there may be virtually nothing left of her beloved home, which as soon as once more is not more than a shell.

It may be recognised in drone footage shot from the air by a blue spot, the place her swimming pool was, standing out in opposition to a backdrop of gray rubble.