My mom and dad were captured in Mariupol. After the exchange, I didn’t believe these were my parents
Finally, the long-awaited news: Yulia Polyakova and Sergij Medyanyk are free. This happened on June 29 within the largest exchange of prisoners of war since the start of the large-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine. On the next day, Daria, together with her eight-year-old brother Nazar, came from Dnipropetrovsk region to Zaporizhzhia to hug and kiss her parents.
They Left, and on the Next Day the War Began
The family lived in Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk region. Yulia worked as a kindergarten teacher, and Sergij served in the National Guard. Then Yulia joined the Guard as a cook-shooter.
“Once dad came home and said: “I want to serve in Azov.” He went to Mariupol. We stayed in Pavlograd for 1.5 years and then my mother got tired of living at a distance. She decided to move with us to Mariupol, a beautiful and promising city. Our family reunited in the early fall of 2021. Mom still worked for the National Guard but then she patrolled the streets of Mariupol and was listed as a private soldier. My brother Nazar, who’s eight now, was in the second grade. I studied at the Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University to become a speech-language pathologist. However, I planned to finally move to Mariupol and thought of following in my parents’ footsteps, and dad supported me in this.”
According to Daria, on February 23, her mother came into her room early in the morning and said that she and her brother should go to their grandmother in Dnipropetrovsk region.
“I had thousands of questions in my head. I didn’t understand why my mother decided we should urgently leave Mariupol. To all my questions, she kept silent and just said: “Go visit your grandmother, in a few weeks dad and I will come and pick you up.” That same evening, my father’s brother came to take us there. I still remember that evening in great detail: how we hugged and kissed, said how much we love each other. We cried and promised that we would see each other soon. I couldn’t have imagined then that a full-scale war would begin the very next day.”
The Couple Were in the Same Colony, and Then They Were Separated
The girl suggests that her parents might have known there would be an escalation at the front, but they said nothing to their children. Only on April 1 did Daria learn that her mother was captured — from the neighbors with whom Yulia was leaving Mariupol. It turned out that the woman was arrested in early March at a checkpoint in Mangush.
“She didn’t take part in hostilities, she was leaving the city as a civilian. She was last reachable on March 3. Dad was rarely available.
Dad just didn’t want to upset me, he tried to cheer me up. Though when there was a chemical weapons attack on the metallurgical enterprise, dad later admitted that he had suffered from it.”
The day before leaving Azovstal, Sergij Medyanyk wrote to his daughter and son: “I miss you greatly. I'll be home soon.” And then the news said that the fighters left Azovstal. Daria recalls how shocked she was by the news that the soldiers were not evacuated to the controlled territory, but were taken to a colony in DNR. The girl says dad rarely called or wrote from the Yelenovska colony, but he always asked if there was any news from their mother in the first place. Initially, Yulia was in the same colony, but then she was taken to a pre-trial detention center in Donetsk.
“Grandma (Sergij’s mother), with whom we stayed all these months, was very worried. More than me and Nazar together. She has problems with her legs and practically can’t move. Two months ago her husband, my grandfather, died. That was an even greater blow for her.
I look at my brother, he is half my age, but a million times stronger. He’s not a boy — he’s already like a little man. He is steadfast unlike me. Seeing me crying, he calms me down. He says the words of support I need: “Dasha, mom and dad will be back soon. Everything will be fine". But I know my brother is also crying, only furtively, so that I couldn’t see.”
My Brother Was Strong for Four Months, but Seeing Our Parents, He Burst into Tears
On June 29, Daria was called and told that her parents had been exchanged and got free. On the next day, together with her brother, she came to Zaporizhzhia, where Yulia and Sergij are currently treated in one of the hospitals.
“When we arrived at the hospital, I immediately panicked: what are they like now, what will happen now? And when we met, we all cried madly. My emotions were inexpressible. Nazar was shocked, he stayed strong all these months, but when he hugged his parents, he gave vent to his emotions.
It hurts me much to see what has become of them. That’s the real face of war. They need to work with a psychologist a lot, because what they saw makes itself felt. When they started to approach us, I couldn't believe they were my mom and dad. They’ve changed a lot, lost weight, especially dad — he is very emaciated. I'm used to seeing them differently.”
