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I was 3 years old when the war started. I know something about 2014 from stories. That russia started an attack on the city of Mariupol and started bombing it, but not so hard. 

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As they said in Mariupol: “It will be like in 2014. There will not be very heavy bombing". But in the end, it turned out to be the opposite. There is no city at all.

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Although they are trying to rebuild it now, it is not the same city. I'll go back a little bit. In 2021, my mother was captured with my stepfather. It was on 10 March 2021.

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And then, my mother spent 1 year and 7 months in captivity, and my stepfather spent more than two years. The "MSS (Ministry of State Security) of the DNR" arrived at 5 a.m. 

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They just broke into the house and took my mother and stepfather away. As I realised later, my stepfather had links with the Ukrainians. And my family was accused of espionage. 

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They said they were spies and were passing sensitive information to Ukraine. My stepfather went to walk the dog at 5 a.m. because he had to go to work. 

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And my mother's car was propped up in the backyard by a black minibus. There were two people in it. My stepfather said: "Who are you? Move away, this is my car." 

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And they said: "Are you Kyrylo Dvornichenko?” My stepfather said yes, and several men attacked him. The dog started barking at them, and they said:

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“Calm the dog down or we will kill it”. My stepfather muzzled the dog, and they went home. Those men broke into our house. They allowed my mother to take some things,

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but they took my stepfather out in an “L” shape – he was handcuffed, and his hands were behind his back. I woke up because of this, but my brother immediately calmed me down,

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and I went back to sleep. My mother asked the men to be quieter because the children were sleeping. And at least they did that. 

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We lived alone with my brother for a while, and then my mother's friend took care of us. And for a long time, I lived with her. I woke up. 

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My mother's friend, who did not have custody of us at the time, was sitting in the kitchen with her son. She said to me: "Pack your things, you're coming to live with us, 

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because Mum has gone to Mariupol." At that time, there was no full-scale war. I didn't suspect anything, I thought it was just a normal trip. I was not used to it. I packed my things and we left. 

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And after a while, I found out from a conversation between my mother's friend from Mariupol and the friend who was supposed to take custody of us that my mother was captured, 

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in prison. I waited for her to finish speaking. And as soon as she finished, I asked her if it was true that my mother was in prison. And my Mum's friend said yes. 

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I was very upset and cried. I ran to my older brother's house. My brother was at home. He calmed me down, told me that it wouldn't last long, that my Mum would come back in a few months.

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She was held in the Donetsk Pretrial Detention Facility. I even remember the number. It was number 5. She was interrogated very seriously. 

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She was told: “If you don't sign a sincere confession, your children will go to an orphanage.” They even brought her documents showing that my older brother 

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and I had already been placed [there]. And what kind of mother wouldn't sign any papers so that only her children could stay at home? And my mother signed them.

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We had a lawyer. At least he was doing something. We met 2-3 times a year. We would go to Donetsk, where a lawyer would pick us up and take us to the “MSS”. 

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My mother was already there. She asked us how we were doing, if we were well, how our guardian was doing. She asked if we were okay. She was freed on 17 October 2023. 

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When the war started, my mother was already in prison. I was walking that day. And my guardian called me and said: “Marik, come home quickly, the war has started!”

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!” I didn't ask anything. I thought there was no time for that, I'll ask later. I ran home. And they had already started to pack. Because she had a son and a younger child – 

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2 years old or a year old. I quickly packed my things and asked: “What about Danyk?” Then she called him after me, and he also came with us to russia. 

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Because it was the only option to go. By then, he was already an adult, and it was a miracle that he was released. Because they told us: “We will let you through,

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but at the next border they will either take him away or send him back.” We packed our things. Danyk arrived. We called a taxi and went to the border. 

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We spent an hour or 2 crossing two borders. Then we called a taxi from the other side, and in Tahanroh, we were met by our guardian's husband.

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He worked in russia. He did not come alone, but with his brother, and we went to Tambov. I think that's the name of the city. We stayed there for about a month and a half, 

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and then we realised that if we all left together, they would take Danyk and her son because they were the same age. In the end, they were sent to Moscow.

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It was the only option because my mother had an uncle there. And I went back to Torez with the guardian and her child by the same route. 

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My brother went to Moscow to visit his uncle, and he lived there for almost a year. And I lived there for almost a year. My mother was freed through a prisoner exchange. 

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She was miraculously included [in the lists]. There were only 2 civilians there – my mother and one other... Well, not 2, but more civilians. Several people. There was an exchange.

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And then, when my Mum's friend saw it, she took it off her hands and showed it to me. We were waiting for a call from my Mum because she knew both my number 

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and the guardians. When she called us, I was very happy. It was beyond words. I immediately called my brother when I talked to my mother, 

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but he already knew everything. My mother had even called him then. For 2 months, we tried to go to Ukraine with my brother. It was a very difficult journey.

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It was very difficult because russia gave my mother a task that was very difficult to fulfill after the exchange. They needed income statements, 

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proof that you can provide food, clothes, etc. for your child. Somehow, my mother managed to do it. And when she sent all the certificates to her brother in Moscow,

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he went to Torez at his own risk. There, we walked with him all day, and the next day, we went to the guardianship [authorities] and re-registered guardianship for my brother. 

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Human rights commissioners from the rf had already arrived in Torez, and we were accompanied to Moscow. From Moscow, we travelled by bus from Latvia to Lithuania 

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and then to Poland. And finally, we arrived in Ukraine. We travelled for 5 or 7 days by bus. It was a long time. And, as I found out later, it was all very random. 

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Nobody knew that they were taken for an exchange. And my mother is still wanted there. And if she goes there now, she will be captured again. The journey was very hard, 

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because I had never travelled so far by car or bus. I could not find a seat. I was sitting and my brother was sitting. It was cramped. And it was very hard. 

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But I understood that I was going to my Mum. To my dear Mum. We met my mother at the railway station. And it was incredible! 

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She was waiting for us at 8 a.m. on 16 December. The first thing I did when I got off the bus was to hug her and want to take her up into the air. As my Mum said, I had grown up. 

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My mother was taken away when I was 9 years old, and when she returned, I was already 11. My stepfather's situation was much worse. 

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My mother told me that four people beat him, and she heard him screaming: "Let me get up!" Those were their first days in captivity. My stepfather was on an electric chair. 

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He was beaten and interrogated almost every day. They asked him about Ukrainians he knew and those in the "DNR” for Ukraine. 

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In short, everything was much worse with him. When he came out, he told me that his leg was broken in 4 places. 1 leg – 4 fractures. And when the so-called russia appeared there...

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I mean, there is no “LNR” and “DNR"; there is russia. And they said that these prisoners had done nothing wrong against russia, and since the “DNR” and “LNR” no longer exist, 

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these people were imprisoned illegally, they should not be here. And my stepfather was just freed, like most people.

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About 80 per cent of them were just freed. We now live in Kyiv, in Ukraine.