Oksana Ostapchuk Profile picture
May 15, 2022 5 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Increbidle at the first sight story of 10-year-old Ilia Matvienko is common for thousands of Ukrainian children. Right after #RussiaInvadedUkraine the little boy & his mom from #Mariupol found a protection from shellings in a basement until one day irreversibly changed everything
That time an attack caught them outside and a couple rushed to a neighbors' house but failed to get there safely. Despite receiving a severe head injury Ilya’s mother, Natalia, managed to carry her wounded son to the apartment of their acquaintances alone.
Right after reaching safety the mom died in Ilia embraces. The city was took by #RussianSoldiers the next day and kidnapped boy was deportated to the occupied part of #Donbas. Ilia, whose injuried leg almost got amputated there, was returned to #Ukraine by his grandma
The woman crossed borders of four countries to reunite with the boy. He met her at a Kyiv hospital right at the day of his 10th birthday. That day Ilya had a symbolic second birthday when doctors said that later his leg is functioning and someday he would be able to walk.
Despite the little survivor of #RussianWarCrimes spent that special day without the dearest person - his deceased mother Natalia - he still had a little celebration party with the grandmother, medical stuff, 3 Ukrainian ministers and the president of Ukraine

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More from @O_Ostapchuk

May 29, 2022
3 month after #Putin declared the #RussianUkrainianWar the idea of 'denazification' of Ukraine is still being accepted by many. In this thread I'll summarise why Putin's war narrative refers to fighting Nazism and how the myth of the WW2 is interconnected with #RussianColonialism
I won't comment Russia's propaganda thesis about Nazi takeover of Ukraine - there's already enough articles explaining that far-right ideology is deeply marginal for contemporary Ukraine. I aim to show not why Nazism is irrelevant to Ukraine but why it's so relevant to Russia
Primarily, the narrative of Nazi threat is designed specifically for Russian audience. Putin's focus is easily explainable If we take into account the position of Eastern Slavs in Nazi racial hierarchy, which defined a particularly violent character of its actions in the USSR
Read 26 tweets
May 28, 2022
#Ukraine's ombudswoman: Ukrainian POWs taken near #Mariupol have been initially kept in basements and transferred to pre-trial detention centers in Donetsk & other occupied areas or detention centers in Taganrog & Voronezh, Russia. #Azov fighters are subjected to special ordeals
Soldiers are being transferred with sacks on their heads, tied and blindfolded. Interrogations are carried out with systematic kicking, beating toes & open wounds with riffle butts/pliers, strangulation, electrocuting, injections of unidentified drugs provoking memory loss
Captives are forced to learn the poem "Forgive us, dear Russians", the anthem of #Russia and history of its state seal & flag. 17-20 female POWs are being held in the Donetsk pre-trial detention center in cells designed for 2-3 people, deprived of sanitation and hygiene products
Read 4 tweets
May 21, 2022
'I've tried to forget it my whole life but have to recall everything again': Holocaust survivor Elvira Bornz tells about her live in #Mariupol

The woman wished to stay in the city she didn't leave even during the WW2 but had to flee after #Russia destroyed 3 houses she hided in
After the city was razed to the ground by #RussianArmy Elvira, who desperately wanted to share the truth about #RussianWarCrimes, consented to evacuation to #Ukraine used by invaders as for deportation: 'We all are witnesses of this mass murder and have no right to stay silent'
'We approached a checkpoint and suddenly somebody said, 'This is Ukraine!'. 'Ukraine, how?!' - I was shocked. 'Were you happy?' (journalist asks). 'You're happy when you receive ice cream in a hot day, and we...we came to Ukraine' (cries)
Read 4 tweets
May 14, 2022
In order to create an attractive picture of 'liberated' #Mariupol for media #Russia's launched damaged waterworks which cases flooding in all basements - the only home and safe shelter for over 150 000 people. Now they live on streets full of #RussianSoldiers
#RussianUkrainianWar
As Russia blocks evacuation and any humanitary efforts from Ukraine, blocked Mariupol residents receive food only from Russia that daily provides 3000 individual servings. The access to drinking water is limited due to little supplying and bad position of distribution centers
But grim realities of the humanitarian crisis in Mariupol is overshadowed by the upcoming health crisis: the metropolis wiped out by Russia within a month keeps ~20 000 of corpses under the rubble. As Russia can't quickly lift the overwhelming number of wreckages and bury remains
Read 5 tweets
May 5, 2022
A document #Russia issues for Ukrainians from occupied region after 'filtering'. After receiving it survivors are sent to economically depressed areas of Russia, often without passports, phones, money and permission to leave region of destination for two years #RussianWarCrimes Image
Such papers are issed for women, children & elderly people. Servicemen, law enforcement officers and civilians suspected in support of Ukraine based on interrogation&their social media profiles/messages/likes or tattoos of Ukraine's state symbols don't pass the filtration
In contrary to deportated women&kids, adult males regardless of age or health are left behind in filtration camps for further prisoner exchange or forced mobilisation. 2000 of them are planned to be walked through a "corridor of shame" at the Russia's Victory Day parade on May 9
Read 5 tweets
Apr 9, 2022
I owe you some positive news

Oleksandr Hutsal, 14, saved the lives of his parents, 3 younder singings and 30 more people surviving a monthlong Russian siege of #Bucha. Every day the boy sneaked through Russian position to find food, water&wood and bring them back to the basement
The boy risking his life under Russian gunfire let over three dozens of civilians survive a month in extreme cold - only 8° C. One man has been shot by Russians when he left a shelter to smoke. The boy's family'll remain in the basement till public utilities are restored in Bucha
You can learn more about Oleksandr and his story from this article
tsn.ua/ru/ato/riskova…
Read 4 tweets

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