The last call of a arms partner about to die forced María Chekh not to lose hope. Shortly after their endless twelve months would begin as a war prisoner in Russian hands.
‘Gerda’ is his war name. But its … captors called her Harley Quinn, as Joker’s girlfriend, when they failed to break it with electric shocks. María Chekh can’t help the smile when remembering it. He holds with an almost palpable firmness that his story is the chronicle of a victory. He managed to enter the tragic Mariupol a few hours before the invading forces definitively fence the city. He endured in the bunkers of the famous steel plant in Azovstal the very heavy bombs with which Russia tried to destroy the Ukrainian defenders there entrenched there. Among them was also her husband. In May 2022, President Zelenski announced the end of the Ukrainian resistance in the Rigger. The twelve months in the hell of Russian captivity for Mary began at that moment.
When the large -scale invasion exploded, the Ukrainian military was in the Mariupol area. His willingness to defend his homeland was inflexible. Maria, who was already Gerda, had a different war idea. “War for me was like a romance, like an adventure, something like that …” An idea that was born from literature, adventure books like Walter Scott’s. These were the thoughts that were piled up in their girl as a child. From those moments, she was clear that she did not want to be the princess: “It was a boring life for me.” I wanted to be the gentleman because “they had the possibility of traveling, facing difficulties and living adventures.”
With this conception of what he presented before herself, he decided to take the way back to the Ukrainian city that was going to be crushed. «Before there was a total blockade, I received the order to accompany the wives and children of military and civilians to a safe place and went by bus. When we return, we stop at the last gas station. We bought a hamburger, a hot puppy, and the last Coca-Cola that it would take in a year and a half. While we were doing some girls they didn’t look and I said: ‘Let’s go to Mariupol’. They looked at me with a crazy face. I was the only happy person on the bus, ”he recalls. The only thing that worried him at that time was “that we might not know if that control point remained ours.”
Del morning marrow
María Chekh participated with what would be her future husband in the ‘Revolution of Dignity’ that changed the fate of Ukraine. «For me, the war began in 2014», Emphasizes. She already had her life. He had studied Chinese translation and interpretation. He worked in the Asian country, completed his training also studying biology, as his grandfather had done before, and often traveling abroad. But this life did not finish satisfying it. The reluctance of her husband delayed her enlistment in the Azov battalion, something that finally occurred in 2017.
“I joined Azov, first as a photographer, and then I began to give English courses for military, because I understood how important it was for Ukraine to join NATO and train together,” he says. One of its main aspirations was to combat Russian propaganda and, for this, it was one of the pioneers of the International Department of its unit. «They invited me to finish the NATO French course in Ukraine. Just before the war, he planned to go to Congo for a United Nations mission. I had many possibilities, because I am a woman and I know French, a really unique combination, ”says the Ukrainian military. But The large -scale war launched by Putin disrupted all the plans of the Ukrainians.
Mariupol’s defense with the Russian fence became almost impossible mission. The Ukrainian garnish was forced to shelter in the gigantic steel plant in Azovstal. From there, Maria informed the world of novelties and took care of her classmates. One of it was seriously injured, His eyelids were burned and could not see anything. She, with the few medications she had, decided to try to cure him, in addition to entertaining her recovery with some games. “I asked everyone to bring shampoo, deodorant, I don’t know, even perfumes -this factory came many people daily and had all this, and he had to recognize the smells,” Maria recalls.
«Life on Azovstal was first interesting and then surreal. We shower every two weeks due to the lack of water. In addition, almost every day some of my good friends were injured or died, so it was difficult, ”says the Ukrainian military. The Russian bombings did not stop and, at the same time, they were unable to completely snatch the smile of the defenders. «Once we created a kind of beauty salon, and another made parades for fashion week. This is how we entertained. Until an enemy bomb penetrated the place where she was. «I couldn’t breathe, something heavy had fallen to me. I was very angry and I think that anger, that adrenaline, saved me. At first I thought I was covered with sandbags but, when I returned, I understood that they were corpses of the people I was talking with a few seconds ago ».
“They hated us very much”Maria affirms about the attitude of Russian jailers. After going through the prison of Olenivka -where in July 2022 more than 50 Ukrainian warfares of war who had participated in Azovstal -were transferred to a prison in Donetsk. “It was there that my hell began,” he emphasizes.
«My first interrogation lasted more than 24 hours. during that time, I was sitting in the same chair. You couldn’t sleep, eating, or going to the bathroom, or drinking“, remember. Electrical discharges were a constant. «When I lost knowledge, they threw water for me to go back to me. Sometimes it was too painful, then horrible, then terrible, and then you felt nothing. Your body no longer supported it and you just didn’t hear, ”he says. María practices risk sports and affirms that she supports pain well. That helped him during the Calvary of Russian prison. He even broke his own torturers throwing a smile. «First they thought it was very strong, and then, after losing knowledge, I started laughing and thought I was crazy. They called me Harley Quinn. In fact, he is one of my favorite characters, ”he explains with a smile referring to one of the villains of the ‘Batman’ comic.
Sadism of torturers
In some of the interrogations there were several prisoners together. «Sometimes they simply do not need information, They simply choose you to hit you, to torture you. They can take five, seven or ten people to the room and hit several at the same time. I saw how they tortured some people, and enjoyed it very much, ”says the Ukrainian soldier. The UN has several occasions denounced the systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian captivity. The Ukrainian government has requested on numerous occasions a total exchange of prisoners of war in the framework of the negotiations. Russia has never accepted.
María, who managed to return home on May 6, 2023, was held for months in a 20 -meter cell with another 23 women. «For me this was the most difficult. It was terrible, it was like burning alive. I didn’t want to listen to anyone … just silence. The sequelae of the lived are maintained, but their strength and their smile are still intact.
