Families of Ukrainian soldiers who have been deported to Russia are at their wits’ end. For months they have been waiting for a signal from their loved ones. The International Red Cross wants to visit the Ukrainians, but does not get permission from Russia. Darya Tsykunova also seeks contact with her fiancé Ilya Samoilenko. “The pressure on Moscow must be increased as much as possible. The Red Cross must be able to visit our men,” she says in conversation with NU.nl.
On May 20, Tsykunova (22) had contact with her fiancé for the last time. Samoilenko was one of the defenders of Azovstal, the steel factory in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. In that complex, elite units of the Ukrainian army fought for 82 days against a Russian superior force.
Samoilenko (28) became an icon: a man with a large beard, an artificial eye and a hook instead of a hand on his right arm. He had previously suffered those injuries during the eight-year war in eastern Ukraine with the Russians. In fluent English, Samoilenko spoke to the international world press about the situation in Azovstal, from a room thirty meters below the ground.
On May 20, the last Ukrainians left in the factory complex surrendered to the Russians. They were taken to a prison in the village of Olenivka, in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. It is unclear how Samoilenko and the other prisoners of war are doing now. Tsynukova is very concerned. “It was already so terrible in Azovstal.”
“And now two months in a prison where the food is bad and the medical care substandard,” she continues. She heard from men who returned through a prisoner exchange that the conditions in Olenivka are bad. “Those men looked bad when they got back.”
Daria Tsykanova, second from left, at the premiere of a documentary about Ukraine earlier this summer.
Daria Tsykanova, second from left, at the premiere of a documentary about Ukraine earlier this summer. Photo: Getty Images
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53 POWs killed in attack
None of the released soldiers Tyskunova spoke to had seen her friend in Olenivka. Her concerns only grew after the explosion at the prison complex on July 28. 53 POWs were said to have been killed and 75 others were injured.
According to the Russians, the Ukrainians had fired a missile that had landed on the complex. But that claim has been labeled as implausible by international experts. Earlier there would have been a Russian operation to erase the traces of war crimes.
The United Nations wants to have a fact-finding investigation, but the Russian authorities have so far not given permission for this. Tsykunova therefore relies on unofficial lists of dead and injured people circulating on social media. Samoilenko is not on it so far.
Love blossomed during music festival
Tsykunova got to know the six-year-older Samoilenko in the summer of 2021 during a music festival they had attended with mutual friends.
Samoilenko was already out of the army at that time. He had become a soldier at 21 to serve in the east of the country in the fight against the Russians and Ukrainian separatists who had already taken parts of the country. He was seriously injured and returned to his men with an artificial eye and an artificial arm. At the time of getting to know Tsykunova, he was in the process of re-entering civil society.
“We immediately liked each other,” says Tsykunova, who is an IT specialist herself. “In the months that followed, we got to know each other better and better. On February 11 of this year, it officially went ‘on’ between us.” Eight days later, Samoilenko returned to Mariupol one last time to address new recruits about his experiences in the war. The plan was to be back in Kyiv on February 25. The day before, Vladimir Putin started the war. Samoilenko decided to stay, rejoined the army, and was one of the last survivors of Azovstal.
Thus a young love was broken in the bud. “We have been a couple exactly eight days before the outside world,” Tsykunova says with a sad face.
She joined the “Association of relatives of defenders of Azovstal.” It concerns a core group of twenty women surrounded by a network of family members. Tsykunova and three others went to Paris in June to draw attention to the fate of their men. They organize demonstrations, come together, and are now trying to draw attention to the fate of the men with an international media campaign.
“Western governments must put pressure on Russia. Under the Geneva Conventions, Moscow must ensure that prisoners of war are properly dressed and fed and that they can maintain contact with their families. Those rules are being violated.”
Samoilenko’s birthday was on July 10. “I wish we were together on this summer day,” Tsykunova wrote in a Facebook post. “I am proud of you, your choice, your position, I respect your strength and intelligence. We will meet soon, I can feel it. I will wait as long as it takes.”
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