Survivor’s Story: Olena Yakhupova’s Escape from Russian-Occupied Kamyanka-Dniprovsk and Fight for Freedom

Olena Yakhupova did not want to leave the family dog ​​and therefore did not manage to escape from Kamyanka-Dniprovsk before it was occupied by Russian troops. After months of torture and imprisonment, Russian propagandists filmed the “liberation” of Olena… And immediately after that, they handed over the Ukrainian to a human enslaver who ordered the Russians to dig trenches. Ukrainians usually do not return alive from forced labor, and she managed to do it only by lucky chance, says Olena. She has helped identify six criminals who have been charged.

Even though this week will be two years since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, we must not get tired of the war. As military support shrinks, Ukraine’s chances of regaining territories occupied by Russia also shrink – and it may even have to lose new ones, as happened with Avdiyivka very recently after heavy battles. Occupation is not only the illegal appropriation of foreign territory. Under occupation, civilians experience the worst horrors: torture, imprisonment, abduction, killing, deportation, destruction of culture and identity, use in propaganda, separation of families and illegal removal of children to be “adopted” by strangers. Before the second anniversary of the war, TVNET interviewed Ukrainians who were lucky enough to get out of the occupation alive – not everyone is so lucky – and those who were at the front themselves. Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are not going to surrender. Neither should the rest of the world.

The occupation of the city of Kamyanka-Dniprovsk, Zaporizhia region, began on February 27, 2022. “The tank columns entered without a single shot,” Olena tells TVNET. “It was a very quiet and very quick occupation.”

Russian troops immediately began to form their occupation institutions, such as the police. Some of the locals themselves started to cooperate with the new occupying power, because they saw an opportunity to get a better position or receive other types of benefits. The occupation authorities tried to improve others – Olena was also among them, whose education and long-term experience in the civil service would have been very useful. “I was offered a position. I said I would think about it, but I never went back.”

When Olena finally made the decision to leave, it was not easy to do, because she could have to wait a week in the queues at the checkpoints. Fearing that it would be even more difficult to do this together with a large dog, she stayed in the occupied Kamyanka-Dniprovsk until October. The delay turned out to be in vain – the occupiers later shot the family’s beloved dog anyway.

Meanwhile, the occupying power began to hunt down nationalist Ukrainians and people close to Ukrainian soldiers. Olena, whose husband serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was handed over

2024-02-20 22:00:00
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