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She had dreams of walking free that felt true. "After this video, they told me, maybe you will be exchanged." It was a lie, she adds, but she saw no harm in this one. "I was asked to record a video saying I was fine, the food is OK, the conditions are OK." I really treated everyone this way, brought them in, we stabilised them, did everything that was necessary," she says.Īt another point near the end of her captivity, someone brought her out for what she assumed was yet another pointless interrogation. Now, looking at the image of her tenderly wrapping a Russian soldier in a blanket, she knows it was yet another lie. She knew that wasn't possible and demanded to see the video, but was refused. They tried to pretend they are not involved in this violation," she says.Īt one point, one of Taira's jailers came to her and said he'd seen a video of her abusing a Russian soldier. "Before the large-scale invasion, Russia tried to hide this violation.
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Taira's experience is consistent with Russia's repeated violations of international humanitarian law on how to treat detained civilians and prisoners of war, says Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of Ukraine's Centre for Civil Liberties. "The treatment was very hard, very rough … The women and I were all exhausted." "I'm not 20 years old anymore and this body can take less than it used to," she says ruefully. She won't go into details about how they were treated, but says they had no information about their families, no toothbrushes, few chances to wash.
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They were held in a maximum security prison with no trial and no conviction. And if I'm accused of something I haven't done, I won't confess for anything.Īfter endless, repetitive putrid weeks broken only by salt-free porridge with bacon, packets of reconstituted mashed potatoes, cabbage soup and some canned fish, Taira found herself in the tiny cell with 21 other women, 10 cots and very little else. Taira says she thinks about the prisoners she left behind constantly. "It feels like when a person is dying and you can't do anything to help, the same way." It died like a person - it was agonising," she recalls. "My heart bleeds when I think about it, when I remember how the city died. The children weren't the first or the last she treated, she says. But they were part of a larger loss for Ukraine. "I shouldn't have shown that I was breaking down. So during the war, of course, I became a little harder. "If I cried all the time, I wouldn't have time to deal with the wounded. Reviewing the video, she says it was a rare loss of control. On that day, she collapsed against a wall and wept. She chronicled the death of a young boy and the successful effort to save his sister, who is now one of Mariupol's many orphans. She called him "sunshine," as she does nearly everyone who comes into her life.
The camera was on when she intervened to treat a wounded Russian soldier. ( AP: Invictus Games Team Ukraine/File)īut when Russian forces invaded in February, she trained the lens on scenes of war. Taira speaks to the media during Invictus Games trials in Kyiv, Ukraine.
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