Women held captive in Putin POW camps
Sister tells of fears for pregnant doc Marjana
EVERY one of these women is a beloved daughter – and many are mums.
But each of the 82 Ukrainians in this image was captured by the Russians and sent to a brutal prisoner of war camp.
The pictures were shared on social media by Kremlin stooges in a propaganda stunt.
It sickened relatives desperate for news of their loved ones as Tuesday marks six months since Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
The prisoners include clerks, cooks and doctors like army doctor Marjana Mamonova, 30, who is seven months pregnant. She is among 200 frontline medics taken as prisoners of war.
Like the relatives of many of those pictured, her devastated family have no idea if she – or her unborn baby – are alive.
Marjana’s sister Anna, 29, believes she is being held at the Olenivka camp in Donestk, where more than 50 Pows are believed to have died.
Anna said: “We were told by soldiers who were swapped in a prisoner exchange that Marjana was put on a bus on the way to be let go. At the last minute, her captors changed their minds and decided to keep her.
“Since her capture, Marjana hasn’t made contact even once.
“So we have no idea about her overall state or the conditions she is now being held in.
“We are so worried about her and we’re desperate for the Ukrainian government to do more to help get her home.”
Marjana’s distraught family only learned about her capture from seeing her face on a Russian propaganda video.
She was captured in May during the brutal siege of Mariupol in the south of Ukraine, where more than 20,000 people are believed to have died. Anna said her sister would have stayed until the bitter end to try to save
lives.
She said: “We were greatly surprised when she told us she decided to become a doctor.
“We all remembered that, as a child, she could faint at the mere sight of blood.
“However, as a doctor on the battlefield, she showed remarkable abilities. She would literally piece people together from parts, saving the lives of many.
“Even when she realised she was pregnant, she kept it to herself. She would not leave despite heavy shelling of Mariupol, staying by the side of our soldiers.”
Doctors, even military ones, are not considered combatants and holding them in captivity is yet another of genocidal dictator Putin’s war crimes.
Andriy Kryvstov’s sister-in-law, Olena, 27, is also a medic in captivity after being detained in the sprawling Azovstal steelworks where Ukrainian defenders held out for 80 days.
She is being held at a pre-trial detention centre in the Russian city of Taganrog, where little is known about her condition. Andriy, whose brother Yuriy is fighting on the front line, said: “Olena was captured on April 12 in Mariupol after refusing help from volunteers who wanted to save her.
“Olena saw herself responsible for her patients and was not going to abandon them.
“We are desperate to bring her back from captivity.
“The Ukrainian authorities had been promising to bring them back in a prisoner swap. “But four months have passed without any real change.”
Last night war crimes expert and former British Army colonel Hamish de Bretton-gordon said: “The Russians have no regard for the rules of war or civilian casualties. Medical personnel are protected under the Geneva Convention but, as in Syria, Russian forces appear to see hospitals and medics as key targets.”
She stayed to help soldiers despite heavy shelling