For the last two years, Mariana Checheliuk was kept under lock and key in Russian ‘filtration’ camps, never knowing when she would ever see her loved ones again.
Moved between detention centres in Donetsk, Yelenovka, Taganrog, Kamyshin and Mariupol, the 24-year-old investigator with Ukraine’s national police endured relentless physical and mental torture at the hands of her captors.
They starved her, and beat her badly for two years, after she was taken while hiding from Russian bombs in the walls of Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol along with her sister, who was thankfully released by her kidnappers.
She suffered a litany of health problems, suffering from kidney failures, spine problems and chronic bronchitis. Her hair also started to fall out, and she stopped having periods.
In August 2022 human rights activists expressed alarm over her fate in Russian hands.
Russian forces also tried to get her to defect, her mother Nataliia Checheliuk, told ZMINA news outlet in January 2024: ‘They were trying to lure my daughter to the Russian side with both sweet promises of a big salary and intimidation. But she refused.’
For the last two years, Mariana Checheliuk was kept under lock and key in Russian ‘filtration’ camps
On Friday, Mariana was one of the 75 people who were returned to Ukraine as part of an agreed prisoner swap with Russia
Mariana Checheliuk breaks down in tears as she is returned to Ukraine
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During her two years of captivity, she was only allowed to talk to her family once, and sent just a handful of letters detailing her deteriorating health.
But on Friday, Mariana was one of the 75 people who were returned to Ukraine as part of an agreed prisoner swap with Russia.
The returnees were seen singing a patriotic song led by former PoW Konstantin Mirgorodsky as they were driven to meet their families after release from detention in Russia.
Upon arrival, they whooped and cheered as they joined their loved ones in Ukraine.
Some knelt and kissed the ground, while many wrapped themselves in yellow-blue flags.
They hugged one another, breaking into tears. Many appeared emaciated and poorly dressed.
During her two years of captivity, she was only allowed to talk to her family once, and sent just a handful of letters detailing her deteriorating health
The 24-year-old investigator with Ukraine ‘s national police endured relentless physical and mental torture at the hands of her captors
During her two years of captivity, she was only allowed to talk to her family once, and sent just a handful of letters detailing her deteriorating health
Ukraine returned 75 prisoners, including four civilians, in the latest exchange of POWs with Russia
This is only the fourth prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia since the invasion began in February 2022
Many were seen weeping tears of joy upon returning to Ukraine
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The same number of Russians, 75, were also returned home in a swap brokered by the United Arab Emirates.
It was the first PoW exchange since February, and only the fourth prisoner swap this year and the 52nd since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. It included a total of 150 POWs and the United Arab Emirates helped negotiate this latest exchange, the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said.
The two sides have traded blame for what they say is a slowdown in the swaps.
Ukraine has in the past urged Russia to swap ‘all for all’ and rallies calling for the release of POWs take place across Ukraine weekly.
A Ukrainian official at the headquarters coordinating the exchanges, Vitalii Matviienko said that ‘Ukraine is always ready.’
Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights ombudsperson, said earlier this week that Kyiv was making ‘new artificial demands,’ without elaborating.
Despite the swap, nearly 2,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war still remain in Russian hands.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday: ‘Throughout all of this time, we have not stopped working for a single day to bring everyone home from Russian captivity.
‘We remember every person.
‘We are making every effort to find each and every one of our people. I am grateful to the team responsible for the exchanges.’