“It was scary to sleep”: wives and mothers of Russian prisoners of war - about their return home

By the time the special operation began in Ukraine, 31-year-old sergeant Artyom Brychikov from the Murmansk region had served two years under the contract.

According to his wife Kristina, her husband was sent to defend the Donbass in May.

In August, he came home to Kandalaksha for two weeks on vacation.

And in October the man was taken prisoner.

“The last time my husband called was on October 1,” Christina recalls.

- He, as usual, said "everything is fine", but we already suspected that something was wrong.

The next day, a stranger sends me his photo and asks: “Excuse me for the shameless question, but was it by chance that your husband was captured?”

Artyom was already wounded in that photo, wearing a foil thermal cape.”

According to Kristina, her husband was taken prisoner when he and his colleagues were on a mission in the Kherson region.

“They entered the village in tanks, where they began to fire on them from all sides,” she says.

Artyom Brychikov was seriously injured.

“He was hit in the shoulder and cheek.

He lost a lot of blood.

10-15 minutes after the injury, he still ran, and then lost consciousness and fell, ”explains the interlocutor of RT.

In captivity, there was almost no communication with Artyom, occasionally he was allowed to exchange voice messages with his wife in the messenger.

According to Brychikova, in these messages, the husband “constantly said the same thing: he asked how the situation with the exchange was going, he said that he loves and misses.”

The wife of a serviceman recalls with a shudder the month when Artyom was in captivity.

She could not stop watching the news on social networks, which only increased anxiety.

“There was a mess in my head, I constantly sat in these groups, and there were photographs, corpses ... It was very hard both emotionally and physically, but I ran around all the instances.

Work was a little distracting - I am a kindergarten teacher, ”says Brychikova.

The woman added that she received great support from her best friend, whose husband is now also in captivity in Ukraine.

All four of them are childhood friends.

“My girlfriend and I live in one city, and our parents live in another.

They became each other's family, because there are no other relatives here.

At first we spent the night at each other's, because it was scary to sleep, ”explains Christina.

To her children - she and Artyom have two sons, three and five years old - Brychikova has not yet told about the captivity and wounding of her father.

She hopes that soon the boys will see their father at home when he returns from treatment in Podolsk.

“He was hit by a bullet in the shoulder, and now this arm does not rise, does not work.

In captivity, he was given only a retainer, and he flew to Moscow with him.

Here they will already operate in a military hospital, ”says Christina.

"The bullet is still in the leg"

Ruslan Mamedov, a serviceman from Kaliningrad, joined the army at the age of 18.

He liked the service, and the young man decided to sign a contract, his mother Elena Lazarenko recalls.

In February, a special operation began, and 19-year-old artilleryman Mammadov went to defend the Donbass.

At the end of September, his mother learned that Ruslan had been taken prisoner.

“Representatives from the unit came to me and said that Ruslan was missing.

Then my son called me himself, told me to tell the unit that he was in captivity and that he was wounded.

Nothing else, ”recalls the woman.

The family lived in obscurity until Ruslan was included in the lists of prisoners of war.

Elena found out that her son was being held in a prisoner of war camp near Lvov, but Ruslan did not tell her about the conditions there.

Before being captured, Mammadov was wounded.

According to Elena, when her son called her from Ukrainian captivity, he said that “the bullet was still in his leg” and that he needed an operation.

Upon his return to Russia, he was taken to a military hospital.

“He called and said that he had been changed, that he was on Russian territory.

As usual, he said that “everything is fine” with him ... He always smiles, tries not to upset me, although this “good” scares me.

But we were very lucky that he was exchanged, ”says the interlocutor of RT.

Elena added that her relatives and friends helped her survive the month while her son was in captivity.

All Mammadov's acquaintances treat him very well, the mother of the serviceman said, they were worried about Ruslan along with her.

“When we found out that he was captured, we were in complete shock,” Elena shares.

- I raised Ruslan alone, he is a very kind, sympathetic boy.

He loves sports, was engaged in cycling, volleyball, loves to play ball.

He always tried to help me, he was very worried about his grandmother, he took care of us.”

“I knew that my husband would return”

Olga Apalkova saw off her 34-year-old husband Vasily to SVO in April.

By profession, her husband is a machine gunner, he himself wanted to defend the Donbass and signed up as a volunteer, the woman explained in an interview with RT.

In July, Olga received a call from the Red Cross, saying that Vasily was being held captive in Ukraine.

“I received a message from my husband that he was in captivity.

There were no more details.

We went to the military registration and enlistment office at the place of residence of my husband, called the hotline.

We received an answer that he was allegedly in the war zone and there is no evidence that he was in captivity, ”says Apalkova.

Vasily's relatives were told that the man was missing, but Apalkova nevertheless made sure that her husband was included in the official list of prisoners of war.

Vasily spent four months in captivity.

“Suddenly the other day he called me, said that he was exchanged, that he would soon be in Moscow!

He says that he was not injured, but he will undergo rehabilitation and restore documents, ”Olga rejoices.

According to the interlocutor of RT, all the months that Vasily was in captivity, his wife and relatives could not find a place for themselves with excitement.

“Of course, I went through all this time in anxiety.

Thanks to my family for supporting me.

I knew that my husband would return, that everything would be fine.

A woman's heart always feels such things, ”Olga is sure.