Dreamed pears and compote: the Armed Forces Fighter Without food in the basement in coal 46 days (photo)
The Russian soldier showed a family album of the Ukrainian family who lived here before the arrival of the Russian measure. The house belonged to Maria Pereeriy, who, after the start of a full -scale invasion with her daughter, went to Germany. Her husband and eldest son remained in Ukraine. The man went to the Armed Forces. At this time, as the Russian soldier "Fima" shot a video in the living room Marina, a captive Ukrainian military died in the basement. This story is told by the BBC.
According to the woman, she was born and lived in the carbon of Donetsk region all her life, worked as an accountant at the mine, her husband made baby swings. The daughter was engaged in music, the son was a Greco-Roman struggle. On the outskirts of the coal, they built their 3-storey house. "Our city was developing, we had parks, there were various projects, not only mines. We realized that we were occupied by Donetsk, but we had quiet. People bought apartments, built houses," Marina recalls.
The Marina's family took out a loan, bought a land with a house and began to rebuild it, but after the beginning of the fighting for the city, Marina's family left carbon. In the winter of 2023, the Russians were able to move forward on the outskirts of the city. Then they seized, in particular, the house of Marina on Sadovaya, 17. In a month in March 2023, the Armed Forces were able to knock them out. But after two and a half years of severe confrontation, the coal fell in October 2024.
The Russians were captured. The woman says that when the Russians were in the city in 2023, her neighbor sent her a link to one of the Russian guideline telegrams. The video had a house of Marina, it has Russians. On Sadovaya, 17 they organized a fire point. "When I saw this video, I was shocked. My daughter was crying," says Marina. The occupant of Fima told the video that the house was beautiful, "until we went there. " Journalists found that "Fima" is Andriy Efimkin, he is 28 years old.
He is the infantryman of the 155th Brigade of the Russian Army, originally from the Far East of Russia. At the end of January 2023, the Efimkin group fell in heavy battles on the outskirts of the city. Then, they were able to move forward. Subsequently, Fima told the Russian media, as without a bulletproof vest crawled into a Ukrainian tank, "to destroy the enemy with grenades.
" What "Fima" did not mention in this interview - it is that when he shot his videos from the house of Marina, in the basement of the house the Russians kept a Ukrainian prisoner who died of starvation. The BBC addressed the Russian Defense Ministry to the conditions of the maintenance of the captive Alexei, but did not receive the answer. Before the war, Alexei worked in the field of IT, had green hair and loved dancing. He lived in Kiev, and before moving to the Ukrainian capital - in Kharkiv.
As a child, he often went to visit his grandmother who lived under a baumatic. In February 2022, Alexei became a volunteer of the Armed Forces. For the love of dance received the call sign "Dancer". In the winter of 2023, he was composed of the 72nd Brigade of the Armed Forces under a carbon. 27-year-old Alexei worked as a drone operator. One day there were fighting near the house where the headquarters of his unit was located. They were surrounded by Russians.
Alexei and two other Ukrainian military - Roman and Alexander tried to leave, but were captured. The novel received fractures of the legs. He lasted for 30 days without water and food. "We provided him with medical care that we were allowed. We were divided. Immediately after capture, Alexei and Alexander were injured, the Russians forced them under fire to go on water to a nearby house. When the shelling began Alexander fell and no longer moved. Alexei Kuli was hit in the leg and back.
"I started to answer. The Russians were dragging me into the basement. I was divorced with my second friend. I didn't know that he was with him. I thought he had survived," Alexei says. So wounded "Tanzor" was in the house on Sadovaya # 17. Here he spent 46 days without food and water. Alexei tells him that he was "lucky" because his wounds were done without sepsis. The culture wound on the leg healed exactly, the rest - in the back, too, but the bullet is still there.
The Ukrainian defender also says that they were not strongly beaten. In another video, published by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Air Force journalists identified the house on Sadova, 17. On the floor, a marinic carpet lies Alexei. The Russians turn to him: "Our captive, what are you?" The Russian invaders beat the prisoners of the shooter several times and strangled. This was done by the former prisoners.
They asked Alexei why Ukrainians do not give up, "because then everyone will quickly be able to go home. " "The Russians did not have a lot of time because they were dying quickly. So I did not suffer strong torture. They beat more from despair," says Alexei. In 46 days, the only food of Alexei became a bank of zucchini caviar, which the invaders gave him at the beginning and the cracker he found on the floor. Alexei also collected crumbs from the floor after the occupants of the invaders.
He dreamed of food in captivity, wanted compote and pears. "I had bright dreams in captivity. I dreamed that I open the refrigerator and there - tomatoes with a green branch, and I first eat a branch and then eat a tomato. I wake up - and nothing. " Alexei says. He had his feet swollen from hunger, and he couldn't walk, but most wanted to drink. "I don't want to drink so much after two weeks. Water is the main problem. You don't even think about food," he remembers.
He dismantled the panels on the wall and tried to drink the liquid from the batteries. It was antifreeze. A few sips of this liquid almost cost him life. The fluid has caused numerous burns of the internal organs. The military lost about 40 kg of weight. But he remembers that he was tried not to panic. "I tried in any way not to color the situation. It's not good, not bad. It was necessary to be like a stone.
Because these were my resources that needed to be distributed correct The Ukrainian defender tells. Also in the basement came to Alexei "Fima". Despite the fact that he was constantly in Balaklava, his eyes and voice recognized. According to Alexei, "Fima" was not beaten, others were beaten. In the spring of 2023, Marina saw her home again. This time, he was filmed by Ukrainian defenders, who in March 2023 returned lost positions under the coledar and reached the house # 17 on Sadovaya Street.
That morning Alex woke up in full silence. This indicated that the occupiers went. "They apparently thought that I had died. So long without water and food. I didn't show myself. I tried to be unnoticed so they could forget about me. Maybe it turned out," the military recalls. He was preparing for the fact that when the territory was cleaned, the basement of the Armed Forces could be thrown by grenades, which happened. He further heard English.
"I began to shout in English and in Ukrainian that I was here. I shouted" HELP "," I am Ukrainian "," I am Ukrainian "," 72nd Brigade. " Very lucky, " - says Alexei. He was ordered to go out with his hands raised, but he could not go out, so by. On the mountain he saw a man he knew - it was a volunteer from New Zealand Kane Tai. "He was very surprised when I saw me and I was also surprised. It was happiness. The chance is one on a million, that it will be a person I know," Alexei recalls.
Kane Tai from New Zealand saved Alexei's life, but killed himself a few weeks after. The soldiers filmed the meeting of the New Zealand and Ukrainian, and Marina saw on video how from the house # 17 on the stretchers were taken by Alexei, who keeps Chupa-Chupa in his mouth and smiles. The man does not remember the man, only an evacuation point where he was loaded into the APC and provided first aid. Then Alexei was taken to the hospital in the Dnieper and then to Kiev.
His captivity without food and water lasted 46 days. "I saw the footage from Auschwitz . . . These fears, what fascists of the dots. But see their baby . . . He had hands like goats, so thin. The limbs were swollen. Doctors said it was a few generations of your ancestors worked to survive this guy" , - said Alexander's father. For 46 days the military was considered missing, and all this time his father sought him, called him everyone who could, and was already going to go to the Donbas in search.
Alexei treatment lasted more than 4 months after captivity. He gradually gained weight. A few weeks after the rescue of Alexei Kane Tai, a military man from New Zealand, died in Bakhmut's battle. Alexander's father, Alexander, says that he never had time for his son. He hopes that one day he will come to his grave to New Zealand. Alexei dreams that his brothers, with whom he could be together in the carbon, and who are considered missing, are alive. He was the last to see them.
"I keep hope that some of them may be in captivity. I hope they are alive and return home. I and thread that remained between them. It's very difficult," the man says. Alexei wants to start dancing again when the war is over. Now the man lives and works in Kiev. He is preparing to be released from the army. There is still a ball in his back. According to the doctor, they will not get it because it is dangerous.
"Fima" Alexei was last seen in the winter of 2023 in the basement of house # 17, when he was captured. The occupier has already stopped hiding his face and "illuminated" on Russian television, giving an interview and receiving awards. He went to war in Ukraine again, as well as as his "hero" performed in front of children at school. Marina still cannot accept the loss of her home. She tries to start a new life in Germany - he teaches language, looking for a job.