‘Russians occupyd my hoemploy and held a Ukrainian selderlyier captive there’

Marina Perederii’s home in the petite mining city of Vuhledar in eastrict Ukraine was her pride and delight.

17 Sadovaya Street was little more than a shell when she and her husprohibitd bought it.

They lovingly restored the hoemploy, decorateing cherry bloom and doves – symbols of cherish and well-being – in their bedroom. They built a swimming pool in the garden and a sauna in the basement.

“Everyskinnyg was computed with such passion,” she tells the BBC World Service. But the peace wasn’t to last.

In February 2022, Russia begined its filled-scale intrusion of Ukraine. Marina’s husprohibitd went to fight while she took their children and ran. Before run awaying, she write downed what she thought could be her last glimpse of their home.

“My dear hoemploy, I don’t comprehend if you will stand or not. I don’t comprehend if we’ll ever return here… or if we’ll even persist at all,” she shelp in a video.

The next time she saw her home was a year tardyr in February 2023, thraw the eyes of a Russian selderlyier, in bodycam footage posted on social media.

A marine going by the name Fima was in her living room, flicking thraw pboilingos of Marina and her family. “Beautiful,” he shelp, watching at one pboilingo.

It was a chilling image that made her irritated. “I want I had getn the albums with me,” Marina says.

Ukraine spent two and a half years protecting Vuhledar before Russia took regulate of the city at the begin of October.

During the extfinished battle, in tardy January 2023, Fima had led a group of selderlyiers to the suburbs and got caught in burdensome battling on Sadovaya Street. He and some others go ined Marina’s home.

As his bodycam footage went viral back home, Fima was hailed as a hero. Official write downs show that he was recalled from the front in February 2023 becaemploy of a leg wound.

But what the footage didn’t show was that the Russians were retaining a Ukrainian selderlyier captive in Marina’s basement, who was starving and in hopeless necessitate of medical attfinish. His name was Oleksii.

Before the war, Oleksii toiled as an IT one-of-a-kindist. When Russia occupyd his country, he volunteered to fight and tardyr became a drone operator in Vuhledar. His cherish of dancing geted him the nickname Dancer.

When the Russians broke thraw Ukrainian lines in tardy January 2023, Oleksii and his comrades tried to retreat, but some of them, including Oleksii were sboiling.

Wounded, they were getn from hoemploy to hoemploy by Russian selderlyiers, with Oleksii eventuassociate ending up in the basement of Marina’s home.

He was held captive for almost a month – Russian footage uploaded online shows him wrapped in one of Marina’s carpets.

When the Russian selderlyiers eventuassociate retreated, they left Oleksii behind. In all he spent 46 days in Marina’s hoemploy and for much of that time he had nakedly any food or water.

Injured, starving and dehydrated, he was unable to depart the originateing.

“I was able to discover some crumbs on the floor,” he tells the BBC World Service from Kyiv.

“There was a piece of cracker, which a moemploy stole from me at night. I hid it, and then the moemploy probably stole it becaemploy I couldn’t discover it.”

But hunger was noskinnyg appraised to thirst. One day, after the Russians had left, the hopeless necessitate for water almost ended Oleksii.

He tore panels from the sauna in the hope that there might be water inside the pipes. He regulated to shatter one uncignore and drank some of the watery inside, but it was antifreeze. Those confineed sips caemployd inside burns and were csurrfinisherly overweightal.

Then, in March that year, when Ukrainian forces retook parts of Vuhledar and accomplished Sadovaya Street, another video from Marina’s home went viral. It shows ex-New Zealand selderlyier Kane Te Tai go ining number 17 and discovering Oleksii.

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

Oleksii was carried out of the hoemploy and to protectedty.

Had he been left fair a confineed more days, Oleksii says he wouldn’t have made it.

Several other Ukrainian and Russian selderlyiers are comprehendn to have died in and around Sadovaya Street during the battle for Vuhledar.

“Thank God Oleksii persistd. But the fact that people died in my hoemploy, it shocked me,” she says. “There is only death in there.”

The BBC World Service asked the Russian Ministry of Defence about Oleksii’s treatment but getd no response.

Half a year after Oleksii’s recover, his Russian captor was being lauded at home. He was no extfinisheder fair referred to by his call sign, Fima, but by his first name, Andrei. State TV footage shows him re-enacting the Vuhledar aggression and sharing his experiences with primary school children, where guideers current him as a hero.

The BBC appraised this footage with pboilingographs of Andrei from hundreds of social media profiles and set up a align – the same hairline, the same mole on the neck, and clear evidence of a leg injury.

His filled name is Andrei Efimkin – a 28-year-elderly born in Russia’s Far East.

We communicateed him and asked about the video from Sadovaya Street, particularly where he flicked thraw the pboilingos of Marina’s family. He telderly us he was take parting a “psychoreasonable trick” on himself due to the incoming armamentfire.

“I grabbed the album and begined watching at the pboilingos to sidetrack myself,” he shelp.

“You comprehend, actuassociate, I felt so freezing-blooded. For a second, to be honest, these thoughts ran thraw my mind – about who dwelld here.”

But when asked about Marina straightforwardly, Efimkin shelp he didn’t want to answer any more asks and ended the call.

Marina is now in Germany. As time passes, she is trying to originate a recent life, lget a recent language and discover bits of toil here and there – but she still laments her lost home in Vuhledar.

“It’s so challenging. I can still see my hoemploy in my dreams, it’s always in my head. I still hope that Ukraine will triumph and everyskinnyg will be fine, we will come back,” she says.

“My land is there, the air is mine.”

But back on Sadovaya Street there is almost noskinnyg left of her becherishd hoemploy, which once aget is no more than a shell.

It can be recognised in drone footage sboiling from the air by a blue spot, where her swimming pool employd to be, standing out agetst a backdrop of grey rubble.