A Ukrainian police officer who was captured by Russian forces sobbed when finally freed last week after two years in captivity, where she had been allegedly “starved, beaten and abused.”
Mariana Checheliuk, 24, an investigator for the National Police of Ukraine, was released Friday during the 52nd prisoner of war exchange between Kyiv and Moscow, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
The young officer could be seen weeping as she was presented with bouquets of flowers wrapped in her nation’s flag and embraced by her fellow Ukrainians for the first time in two years after suffering unspeakable hardships.
Checheliuk and her sister were both taken captive while hiding from Russian bombardments at the Azovstal steelworks mill in April 2022, with the officer held at POW camps while her sister was eventually rescued.
Checheliuk’s family said she suffered a litany of abuses as her health condition worsened while captive, with the officer developing bronchitis.
“Despite treatment in the pre-trial detention center, including antibiotic injections, her health did not improve,” her mother, Nataliia , told the ZMINA news outlet in January, citing letters her daughter was allowed to send to the family while in Russian detention.
“She lost a significant amount of weight, her immune system weakened, her hair began to fall out, and she suffered from amenorrhea,” the mom said of Checheliuk.
The young woman also relayed how she had been starved and beaten inside the jails.
While Checheliuk’s letters got to her family, Nataliia said the letters she sent to her daughter never made it to her, keeping the officer in the dark of what happened to her sister.
After the sisters were split up, Checheliuk was sent to the Donetsk pre-trial detention center and later held as a POW in the Olenivka, Taganrog and Mariupol camps when the Kremlin learned of her status as an officer.
Nataliia said Moscow tried to get her daughter to defect, but the police officer rejected all their offers and continued to suffer in the POW camps.
“They were trying to lure my daughter to the Russian side with both sweet promises of a big salary and intimidation,” Nataliia told ZIMINA. “But she refused.”
Checheliuk was one of 75 Ukrainians freed Friday as part of the latest prisoner swap between Kyiv and Moscow.
The exchange saw 75 Russian prisoners freed as well, with the exchange being the first of its kind since February.
