He survived torture, she never stopped writing: the story of a Ukrainian marine who returned from Russian captivity

Ukrainian marine Dmytro Chornyi spent more than three years in Russian captivity. He was released in a prisoner exchange on 19 April and proposed to his girlfriend Diana the following day. Throughout his imprisonment, Diana waited for him, wrote countless letters and fought for his release.

Source: The Guardian, sharing Dmytro's story

Details: Dmytro was raised by his grandparents after his father left the family when he was two and his mother followed five years later. When he was 15, he started dating 16-year-old Diana.

Chornyi joined the Ukrainian marines at the end of 2021, giving up on his initial idea of becoming a lawyer. After training in Kherson, he was deployed on a nine-month assignment to Mariupol.

At 04:00 on 24 February 2022, Russia launched its attack on the city, and Dmytro’s brigade was among the first to engage in combat. He and his comrades found themselves trapped at the Azovstal steelworks. On 12 April, the Ukrainian government ordered the defenders to lay down their arms.

He was first held in Olenivka, then transferred to Kamyshin in Russia. There, Ukrainian prisoners endured beatings with sticks and shock batons, solitary confinement and were forced to learn the Russian national anthem and the Soviet-era song Katyusha. They were punished for the slightest movement or word and at times bitten by guard dogs who were set on them.

The Russians crammed 10 prisoners into cells meant for four. They were forbidden from raising their heads or speaking. Outside the window, only the sounds of Russian propaganda playing on the radio could be heard.

The harshest torture occurred during interrogations: a bag placed over his head, electric wires attached to his fingers and shocks administered between his legs. In the end, Dmytro confessed to crimes he did not commit – just to survive.

Dmytro says he forgot Diana’s voice and the faces of his family as a way to survive. "The very first rule is to forget that you were once a citizen," he explained. "Forget about your girlfriend, forget about your grandparents, completely separate yourself from your past. That is, you have never been there, you were born in captivity, you live in captivity."

Throughout this time, he had no contact with his beloved, despite her sending letters week after week. For the first two years, none of them reached Dmytro.

A few months before the exchange, a guard finally handed Dmytro a folded piece of paper. Before opening it, he saw the outline of a heart and burst into tears.

The day after being liberated, he proposed to his beloved in their hometown of Kropyvnytskyi. A week ago, the couple got married.

Chornyi is currently undergoing rehabilitation. He says he feels physically well, but his emotional wounds will take time to heal. Since his release, he has been working with three psychologists.

"With limited success so far," he admits.

Adjusting to the real world after three years of torture in captivity is not easy.

Diana says that her beloved remains the same as he was during their last meeting on 1 January 2022.

"He’s not changed to me," she says.

Background: Earlier, Ihor Zobkiv, a serviceman from the 80th Separate Galician Air Assault Brigade who lost both legs in the Russo-Ukrainian war, proposed to his girlfriend at the foot of Mount Hoverla, the highest mountain in Ukraine, standing at 2,061 metres in the Carpathian Mountains.

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