A Ukrainian medic filmed her everyday life in the Ukraine war for two weeks before she was captured by the Russians. Now her videos are going around the world.
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the essentials in brief
- Ukrainian paramedic Yuliia Paievska (53) saved numerous lives in Mariupol.
- She filmed her everyday life with a body cam that she received for a Netflix documentary.
- Journalists smuggled the recordings past the Russians in a tampon.
- Now the incredible pictures from everyday life of the heroine have been released.
Yuliia Paievska (53) is a Ukrainian medic who worked in Mariupol after the war broke out. She filmed hundreds of hours of her everyday life and gave the files to journalists from the AP news agency.
Now she’s a prisoner of war for the Russians. No one has heard from her for almost two months. But her pictures from the Ukraine war are now going around the world – and show her tireless efforts to help people.
Paramedic filmed everyday life during the Ukraine war
The military personnel, nicknamed “Taira”, made no distinction between friend and foe. Her photographs show how she repeatedly cared for Russian soldiers.
In pictures from March 10, she and other paramedics can be seen unloading two Russian soldiers from an ambulance. One of them is in a wheelchair, one kneels on the floor, tied up.
When asked by observers whether she would really treat the Russians, Taira replies: “They would not be so kind to us. But I can’t help it.”
The 53-year-old mother also treated civilians injured in the Ukraine war. Particularly tragic: Two days after the outbreak of war, she took care of two children whose parents died in the Russian bombs.
Despite desperate attempts to revive the little boy, he dies in Taira’s arms. Even the experienced paramedic can hardly cope with this, she turns away and cries, “I hate it,” she says.
This is how the recordings got out of Mariupol
The story of how the impressive recordings came about is almost as unbelievable as the paramedic’s work. In addition to Taira herself, Prince Harry, Netflix and a tampon were also involved.
But let’s start from the beginning: Between 2018 and 2020, Yuliia Paievska served as a paramedic in eastern Ukraine. She also took part as an athlete in the Invictus Games, an international sports competition for military personnel.
These were founded by Prince Harry, who now planned to make a Netflix documentary about the inspiring stories of the participants. In addition, the Ukrainian received a body cam with which she should film scenes from her life.
But then the Ukraine war began. Instead, Taira filmed a documentary about her everyday life in Mariupol, which was bombed by the Russians. For two weeks she documented everything she experienced.
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Taira made her last video on March 9th. Then she gave a memory card with 256 gigabytes of images to journalists from the Associated Press. These were part of the last international team to leave the city.
Journalists smuggled memory card in tampon from Mariupol
To prevent their valuable files from being taken at a Russian checkpoint, they hid the chip in a tampon. They passed dozens of checks and finally got out of the country on March 15.
The following day, Taira was captured by the Russians in the Ukraine War. Shortly thereafter, she appeared on pro-Russian television in the separatist region of Donetsk with bruises on her face. Like many other Ukrainian military personnel, journalists and civilians, she has since disappeared without any sign of life.
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