Mascha smiles as she talks about her time at a holiday camp in Crimea. Brushes a strand of dark blonde hair from her face and remembers the dolphins in the aquarium, sweets, shopping sprees, friendships. She sent her parents a video from there showing her room, a bright room with three beds, bathroom, TV. “Even a balcony,” says Masha. In front of it is a magnificent fir tree. She was supposed to stay in Crimea for two weeks, but the Russians held her there for six months.
Masha is fifteen years old, she loves karate, likes to do handicrafts and lives with her parents in a family house in Kherson. The house is on a narrow street, the Dnipro is close and the Russian armed forces are close. After leaving the city, which they captured and subjected to their tyranny in early March 2022, the soldiers retreated to the other side of the river. Less than two kilometers separate Masha and her family from the enemy. The Russians are constantly shelling Cherson, there are dead and wounded almost every day; nobody who does not have to leave their house.
“Magic Life” is written on Masha’s red sweater. She is lounging in an armchair. Back then, during the occupation, she really wanted to go to the holiday camp in Crimea. Snezhana, Masha’s mother, a warm-hearted woman, says: “She begged me, cried, she fell on her knees.” Masha threatened her that she could not guarantee anything if she forbade her from this holiday camp. Sneshana gave in. With a heavy heart, because she had read about children who had been kidnapped by the Russians. But she had also heard of children who had come back happy and unharmed.
So Masha drove. Two weeks passed. Three. Four. November came and the Ukrainian army liberated Kherson. In great haste the Russians blew up bridges and radio masts as they left. Sneschana knew: My child is not coming back. Masha now says that she was fine, she had to change camp twice. Of course she was homesick, but she was always in contact with her parents via her smartphone. She made friends, her home receded into the distance. She wasn’t taught. And Russian propaganda? She shakes her head.
In a golden cage
Oleksandr, Masha’s father, is leaning against a chest of drawers with his arms crossed. His gaze is serious. “Children need other children,” he says. His daughter is an open person and used to traveling through her sport. She has already taken part in karate competitions in Poland. Now she is more or less tied to the house because it is too dangerous outside. Masha was treated well in the holiday camps, one Russian in particular was very friendly. There was only trouble when a young person smoked secretly and was caught. “Not all Russians are like Putin,” says Oleksandr.
He doesn’t speak of fear or anger. But his wife Sneschana, whose desperation grew every day, does. She feared she would never see her child again. Never, she knew, would the Russians bring Ukrainian children back to areas no longer under their rule. Masha had been away for more than four months now. Sneshana often cried. She suffered from pangs of conscience, why on earth had she let her daughter go? She turned to the NGO Save Ukraine, which helps bring home children who have been kidnapped and held on Russian territory. Together with other mothers, she set out for Crimea. They traveled to Moscow via Poland and Belarus. There they were interrogated for nine hours during a check by secret service officials. Some mothers had to strip down to their underwear. Your smartphones were checked, all contacts, photos, messages checked. They were asked what they think of Russia, and Snezhana says: “I hated lying.”