Ukrainian civilian woman reunites with her two daughters after six years in Russian captivity – video

Ukrainian woman Svitlana Holovan has reunited with her daughters for the first time in more than six years after being freed from Russian captivity. Her daughters were four and ten at the time of her arrest in 2019.

Source: Ukrainian Parliamentary Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets

Details: Lubinets said that throughout her years in captivity, Svitlana never once saw her daughters nor knew what had happened to them. Following the first reunion, the family will go on holiday together.

"The story of Svitlana and her daughters is an example that recovery and reunion are possible even after many years of hardship," Lubinets wrote.

Originally from Donetsk Oblast, Svitlana was arrested by the Russians in August 2019 in front of her two daughters, the youngest of whom was four at the time. She later said that the reason for her detention was simply that she had relatives living in Ukrainian-controlled territory.

In her hometown, she made a living by salting and selling fish as well as working in transport.

During the first two years, she was held in the notorious Russian torture prison Izolyatsia in Donetsk. Later, she was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison and transferred to the Snizhne penal colony in Donetsk Oblast.

Back home, her daughters Ania and Sofiia were waiting for her. At first, their father took them to Mariupol, while their aunt Nataliia also took care of them. Svitlana said that in Mariupol, the girls risked being sent to an orphanage.

Shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Svitlana’s ex-husband took the daughters to Khmelnytskyi Oblast, and later to Germany. Svitlana admitted that in captivity, she clung to dreams of reunion with her family.

"I had faith that I needed to get out and see my family, who love me and are waiting for me. For the sake of my children, I gathered strength, endured and believed," Svitlana shared.

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