MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - Every war has its prisoners and the war in eastern Ukraine is no exception, but while the Donbas independence supporters are trying to exchange their captives as quickly as possible, Kiev seems to be in no hurry to take the same step.
Leader of Horlivka’s independence forces Igor Bezler is ready to exchange a group of captives for just one person: Olga Kulyugina, the wife of one of his soldiers. RIA Novosti asked some of the captives why in their opinion they were abandoned by Kiev.
The Modern-Day Decembrist Wife
Among the 17 people held captive by Igor Bezler, one person truly stands out. Oksana Zasukha, a 29-year-old accountant who came to Gorlovka on her own free will to stay with her husband Roman, a Ukrainian Army captain and former history teacher at a rural school in the Kiev Region.
“I learned that he was captured via Internet, seen him in a YouTube video. It was hard to recognize him – beaten badly and covered with bruises,” the young woman recalled.
Oksana’s parents tried to talk her out of going, but she left her 7-year-old daughter with them and went to look for her husband. “I talked to Igor Nikolaevitch [Bezler] over the phone and he told me it will be alright,” she said.
When asked if she was scared to go to armed rebels, Oksana said: “First of all, they are people, and I’m a woman. I came unarmed. People here are the same as we are. The same Ukrainians.”
Bezler’s men met Oksana at the railway station and brought her to her husband. Now the family has a separate room and is getting food in exchange for cleaning and other help. Oksana is not your average captive: she is allowed to leave the building and go to the store. But as Horlivka is being routinely attacked, she is in no mood for walks.
No one knows when their captivity will be over. And to the family’s surprise, Roman has not received a single phone call from his Army commanders in months.
Small Army of Captives
Another five prisoners, soldiers of the Ukrainian Army captured with Roman, live in the next room. They are your average guys from central Ukraine, mobilized to stifle a rebellion in the east of the country: a carpenter, a loader and a transport technician. All of them are in their thirties and have families and children waiting for them at home.
30-year-old Oleg Dobnich used to work as a loader operator. His daughter is about to turn 9. “My daughter doesn’t know I was captured, she thinks I’m serving as I used to,” Oleg said.
“We don’t want to be at war, no one does,” the men said. They were brought “to protect the borders in case of a Russian invasion” for 10 days. Later, their term was extended to 45 days, and then for an undefined period. The arms they were given were old and they were not fed well.
“Why don’t you let them go?” I asked Bezler.
“I really want to, it’s the Ukrainian government that don’t. They are the soldiers of the Ukrainian Army. And I need to exchange my captives. I’d be happy to bring them back to their mothers and wives – just like I did with a group of policeman and inductees released earlier,” he replied.
As a joke, Bezler hung a flag saying “1st Ukrainian Volunteer Army of Belaya Tserkov against fascism” in the captives’ room – most of the prisoners were captured in Belotserkovsk.
But, of course, he does not ask his prisoners to fight on his side: this might endanger their mothers and wives who are staying in their hometowns.
An Unfortunate Photo
“We are calling the highest ranking officials all the time,” Vasiliy Boudik, another prisoner, said citing names of government officials, Defense Ministry employees and the ombudsman. “Everyone is telling us that our cases are being taken care of, that we are not forgotten. But nothing changes.”
Boudik was bringing journalists to Right Sector and took a photo of himself and Dmitry Yarosh, the far-right organization’s leader, more out of curiosity than admiration. Rebels found the photo in his phone and assumed that he was a close friend of Yarosh or Right Sector representatives in Horlivka.
Boudik now speaks candidly to Bezler. He said that he “could have run away but promised not to.”
Vasiliy thinks that someone in Kiev just does not want to agree to Bezler’s terms, thinking that if he wants to exchange a whole group of prisoners for just one woman, his soldier’s wife, then she must be a very important prisoner to keep.
It feels especially unjust for Ukrainian captives to see a different attitude towards another prisoner of Bezler: Nilson Bengt Gunnar, a Swedish citizen. After the King of Sweden took matters under his personal control, Nilson has been the subject of frequent visits by Swedish officials and journalists, receiving plenty of telephone calls every day. Nilson will go home soon.
“And we will stay,” Vasiliy said, with the sounds of Grad rocket launchers approaching in the distance as we speak.
