KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The captive Ukrainian medic’s eyeglasses had lengthy since been taken away, and the face of the Russian man strolling previous her was a blur.

Yuliia Paievska knew solely that her life was being traded for his, and that she was abandoning 21 girls in a tiny three- by six-meter (10- by 20-foot) jail cell they’d shared for what felt like an eternity. Her pleasure and reduction was tempered by the sense that she was abandoning them to an unsure destiny.

Earlier than she was captured, Paievska, higher recognized all through Ukraine as Taira, had recorded greater than 256 gigabytes of harrowing bodycam footage exhibiting her workforce’s efforts to save lots of the wounded within the besieged metropolis of Mariupol. She bought the footage to Related Press journalists, the final worldwide workforce in Mariupol, on a tiny information card.

The journalists fled town on March 15 with the cardboard embedded inside a tampon, carrying it via 15 Russian checkpoints. The subsequent day, Taira was taken by pro-Russia forces.

Three months handed earlier than she emerged on June 17, skinny and haggard, her athlete’s physique greater than 10 kilograms (22 kilos) lighter from lack of nourishment and exercise. She mentioned the AP report that confirmed her caring for Russian and Ukrainian troopers alike, together with civilians of Mariupol, was vital to her launch.

She chooses her phrases rigorously when discussing the day she was taken captive, and is much more cautious when discussing the jail for worry of endangering the Ukrainians nonetheless there. However she is unequivocal concerning the influence of the video launched by the AP.

“You bought this flash drive out and I thanks,” she mentioned in Kyiv to an AP workforce that included the journalists in Mariupol. “Due to you, I might go away this hell. Because of everybody concerned within the alternate.”

She nonetheless feels responsible about these she left behind and mentioned she is going to strive her greatest to assist free them.

“They’re all I take into consideration,” she mentioned. “Each time I seize a cup of espresso or gentle a cigarette, my conscience pains me as a result of they’ll’t.”

Taira, 53, is considered one of 1000’s of Ukrainians believed to have been taken prisoner by Russian forces. Mariupol’s mayor mentioned just lately that 10,000 folks from his metropolis alone have disappeared both by seize or whereas making an attempt to flee. The Geneva Conventions single out medics, each navy and civilian, for cover “in all circumstance. ”

Taira is an outsized persona in Ukraine, famed for her work coaching subject medics and immediately recognizable by her shock of blond hair and the tattoos that circle each arms. Her launch was introduced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Regardless of the load loss and all she has endured, she continues to be vibrant. She smokes consistently, lighting one cigarette after one other as if making an attempt to make up for the three months she had none. She speaks quietly, with out malice, and her frequent smiles gentle her face deep into her brown eyes.

A demobilized navy medic who suffered again and hip accidents lengthy earlier than the Russian invasion, Taira can also be a member of the Ukraine’s Invictus Video games workforce. She had deliberate to compete this April in archery and swimming, and her 19-year-old daughter was permitted to compete in her place as a substitute.

Taira acquired the physique digicam in 2021 to movie for a Netflix documentary sequence on inspirational figures being produced by Britain’s Prince Harry, who based the Invictus Video games. However when Russian forces invaded in February, she skilled the lens on scenes of warfare.

The digicam was on when she intervened to deal with a wounded Russian soldier, whom she known as “sunshine,” as she does almost everybody who comes into her life. She chronicled the loss of life of a boy and the profitable effort to save lots of his sister, who’s now considered one of Mariupol’s many orphans. On that day, she collapsed in opposition to a wall and wept.

Reviewing the video, she mentioned it was a uncommon lack of management.

“If I cried on a regular basis, I wouldn’t have time to take care of the wounded. So in the course of the warfare, after all, I grew to become somewhat tougher,” she mentioned. “I shouldn’t have proven that I used to be breaking down. … We are able to mourn later.”

The kids weren’t the primary or the final she handled, she mentioned. However they had been half of a bigger loss for Ukraine.

“My coronary heart bleeds after I give it some thought, after I bear in mind how town died. It died like an individual — it was agonizing,” she mentioned. “It looks like when an individual is dying and you’ll’t do something to assist, the identical approach.”

Hours earlier than Taira was captured, Russian airstrikes hit the Mariupol theater, town’s primary bomb shelter. A whole bunch died. That very same day, the Neptune pool, one other bomb shelter, was additionally hit.

Taira gathered a bunch of 20 folks hiding in her hospital’s basement, principally kids, right into a small yellow bus to take them away from Mariupol. Town heart was on the verge of falling, and Russian checkpoints blocked all of the roads main out.

That’s when the Russians noticed her.

“They acknowledged me. They went away, made a name, got here again,” she mentioned. “So far as I can inform, they already had a plan.”

She believes the youngsters made it to security. She avoids disclosing particulars about that day for causes she mentioned she couldn’t absolutely clarify.

However she appeared 5 days in a while a Russian information broadcast that introduced her seize, accusing her of making an attempt to flee town in disguise.

On the video, Taira appears to be like groggy, and her face is bruised. As she reads an announcement ready for her, a voiceover derides her as a Nazi.

Contained in the jail system, detainees had been subjected to the identical form of propaganda, she mentioned. They heard that Ukraine had fallen, that the Parliament and Cupboard had been dissolved, that town of Kyiv was beneath Russian management, that everybody within the authorities had fled.

“And many individuals began to consider it. You’ve seen how this occurs beneath the affect of propaganda? Folks begin to despair,” Taira mentioned. “I didn’t consider it, as a result of I do know it’s silly to consider the enemy.”

Daily, they had been compelled to sing the Russian nationwide anthem — twice, 3 times, generally 20 or 30 occasions if guards didn’t like their habits. She hates the anthem much more now, however talks about it with a flash of humor and defiance.

“I discovered it a plus as a result of I’ve at all times wished to study to sing — then all of the sudden I had the time and a cause to apply,” she mentioned. “And it seems that I can sing.”

Her jailers within the Russian-controlled Donetsk area pressured her to admit to killing males, girls, kids. Then they began on accusations of organ trafficking that she discovered insulting of their absurdity.

“Seized organs on the battlefield. Do you will have any thought how sophisticated this operation is?” she requested, dismissing the allegation with a short profanity. “It’s invented, an enormous fabrication.”

She admitted nothing.

“I’m terribly cussed by nature. And if I’m accused of one thing I haven’t finished, I gained’t confess for something. You’ll be able to shoot me, however I gained’t confess,” she mentioned.

After infinite, repetitive putrid weeks damaged solely by salt-free porridge with bacon, packets of reconstituted mashed potatoes, cabbage soup and a few canned fish, Taira discovered herself within the three- by six-meter (10- by 20-foot) cell with 21 different girls, 10 cots and little or no else. They had been held in a most safety jail with no trial and no conviction.

She gained’t go into particulars about how they had been handled, however mentioned they’d no details about their households, no toothbrushes, few probabilities to scrub. Her well being began to fail.

“I’m not 20 years previous anymore and this physique can take lower than it used to,” she mentioned ruefully. “The remedy was very arduous, very tough. … The ladies and I had been all exhausted.”

Taira’s expertise is according to Russia’s repeated violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation on methods to deal with detained civilians and prisoners of warfare, mentioned Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine’s Middle for Civil Liberties.

“Earlier than the large-scale invasion, Russia tried to cover this violation. They tried to fake they aren’t concerned on this violation,” she mentioned. “Now, Russia doesn’t care.”

At one level, considered one of her jailers got here to her and mentioned he’d seen a video of her abusing a Russian soldier. She knew that wasn’t attainable and demanded to see the video, however was refused.

Now, trying on the picture of her tenderly wrapping a Russian soldier in a blanket, she is aware of it was yet one more lie.

“That is the video, right here it’s. I actually handled everybody this fashion, introduced them in, we stabilized them, did all the pieces that was needed,” she mentioned.

At one other level close to the tip of her captivity, somebody introduced her out for what she assumed was yet one more pointless interrogation. As an alternative, there was a digicam.

“I used to be requested to document a video saying I used to be high quality, the meals is OK, the circumstances are OK,” she mentioned. It was a lie, she added, however she noticed no hurt on this one. “After this video, they advised me, possibly you can be exchanged.”

Then she went again to her cell to attend. She had goals of strolling free that felt true. However she tried to not really feel an excessive amount of hope, in order that she wouldn’t be crushed if it didn’t occur.

Extra time handed till she was lastly allowed out, blindly passing the Russian prisoner exchanged for her.

On a current day within the Ukrainian capital, Taira headed to the Kyiv archery vary deep in an deserted Soviet-era manufacturing unit. She embraced her coach and different athletes there, then settled into coaching for the primary time since earlier than the warfare.

Her photographs had been exactly aimed on the paper goal, hitting the bullseye. However she needed to lean on a help for her power accidents, and he or she drained rapidly. She retreated to a cavernous workshop to chain smoke, tapping the ashes right into a metallic can and gazing out the window.

Her husband, Vadim Puzanov, mentioned Taira remained essentially the identical regardless of three months of captivity and is open about what she endured.

“Maybe there can be long-term penalties, however she is stuffed with plans,” he mentioned. “She is transferring on.”

These plans are clear and prioritized: Get better her well being, participate in subsequent yr’s Invictus Video games, and write a e-book, a type of self-help for folks she hopes won’t ever want the recommendation. She smiled calmly as she defined.

“I plan to place collectively details about life in captivity,” she mentioned. “How ought to they behave? Easy methods to create circumstances to make it simpler to endure? What’s the psychology?”

Requested if she had feared loss of life in captivity, Taira mentioned it was a query her jailers requested typically, and he or she had a prepared reply.

“I mentioned no as a result of I’m proper with God,” she advised them. “However you might be undoubtedly going to hell.”

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Related Press author Sarah El Deeb contributed from Beirut.

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Comply with the AP’s protection of the warfare at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine