People in Russian terrorist captivity are in hell, but world turns blind eye - paramedic Tyra

What is Independence for you?

This is the freedom to choose one's destiny and the freedom to decide how to live on. Those who have been deprived of freedom understand well what a great value it is.

They say that Ukrainian Independence is 31 years old, but we are a very freedom-loving people and, even when we were under pressure, under a totalitarian regime, we still managed to preserve some internal freedom. Do you think that Ukraine as a state is now completely independent in the context of the things you are talking about?

I think that in today's world no state is completely independent, because we exist in communication with each other. And only those who go against the whole world get isolated from this world and, of course, problems.

It can be said that the Russian Federation is completely independent and completely isolated, it would be good if the world eventually became independent from it. My colleagues reminded me of your diaries from 2014. And there is such a phrase: they say that every generation must have its own war. I must note that some Ukrainians believe that what we are experiencing now is the result of the shortcomings of some previous generations of Ukrainians. I am not a supporter of this opinion, nevertheless, I understand that at this stage of our development we could be better than we are, a better version of ourselves. Nevertheless, the phrase I just said scares me, because I also have a child and I am afraid to imagine that my child or my grandchildren could get a new wave of confrontation and war. So every generation must have its own war. Does this mean that the war for Ukraine never ends, it just moves sinusoidally, wave-like?

I think we now have a chance to end this war that has been going on for over 300 years. And so that our children and grandchildren are not forced to continue. I know well what war is, and I would not wish such a fate on any person, and certainly not on my child. Each generation must have its own war, but let's hope that the future wars will be like artistic competitions of some kind. I would dream about it.

So that it is not about blood and murder, but that it is some kind of healthy competition between healthy countries?

Or sports. I really dream of such a future for my country.

And of course, in order not to pass this problem on to our descendants, we need to be very clear about what our enemy is, who our enemy is, and what the correct portrait of our enemy is. You have experience with these people. What is the collective portrait of a Russian who came to our land and somehow justifies his presence here? To what extent do they themselves believe in what their propaganda says in the context of justifying the need for some kind of war here now, in Ukraine?

I think they are just trying to find some excuse to whitewash themselves in their own eyes. Because they feel they are doing something unfair, their actions are inhumane, to say the least. There are many things people can go to in order to justify their meanness, their injustice, their actions that they have already done. And the further they move in that direction, the more and more, like a snowball, these crimes pile up. I would prefer that propaganda in Russian society would end, and people would understand themselves, and not repeat the narratives that are constantly being told to them, simply from every iron, from every corner, about some mythical people from Bandera, about fascists, Nazis. And all this, to put it mildly, is not true. I think they are afraid of the future, and because of that they try to impose their will more and more.

The Russians would like the whole world to recognize their crimes as heroic deeds.

They want to be proud of what they do.  But, unfortunately, this is very far from any noble actions. That is, in the background there is still an effort to do something good. A person is arranged in such a way that he wants to be worthy, he wants to be proud of what he does. It's just that the Russians change the concept and replace the concept of nobility with things that cannot be reconciled and agreed with at all.

If I turn off all the TVs and all the radios for them, will that solve the problem? You said propaganda is the reason they are like that. If we eliminate propaganda, will they change? Will they become adequate, will it be possible to coexist with them?

I think that this disease in some people is already at an incurable stage, but maybe there are those who are still subject to treatment. Again, if you turn off the propaganda, its effects will last for years and years, maybe even decades. Due to the fact that this whole story has been going on for too long. Even during the Soviet Union, it was possible to notice the humiliation of other peoples, except the Russian one. That is, all these anecdotes about the Khokhls, the Chukchis, and the Caucasians were heard even then. It's not 30 years old, it's not even 50, it's much older. And the problem is that Russia imitates this experience and promotes and continues to carry the same narratives, only using modern means of influencing consciousness.

Is their propaganda the cause of their imperialism and chauvinism? Is there chauvinism and imperialism, and this, you know, like the bone marrow, a part of the body, moreover, very important, gives rise to propaganda?

Propaganda does not appear by itself, propaganda is formed by people. Those who issue ideas spin these same narratives and popularize them in society.  Perhaps we should oppose counter-propaganda to this influx, because it is a serious weapon. And I think that sometimes it kills no worse than iron.

This is a story about the ability of Ukrainians to save their lives during battles and after battles. Unfortunately, I came across the testimony of our fighters who noted that the level of training, in the sense of tactical medicine, of our defenders at the beginning of a large-scale invasion was insufficient. Someone may have heard the word "tourniquet" for the first time in their life on February 24, but this is explained by the fact that there were an extremely large number of volunteers and those willing to defend their country, and very often they were people without experience. Such people also got into advanced positions. And I really want to save as many of our Ukrainian lives as possible.

Yulia, how often do you think 300s turn into 200s just because there is not enough knowledge, practice, skills and understanding of the situation? The ability to orientate here and now, what is happening, and provide help to yourself or your brother?

It all depends on each unit in question. If we take the Marines, for example, they are well trained and usually well trained. Of course, recruits need a lot of attention in this regard and need constant training. And it should not be a few hours during the preparatory period of the young fighter's course, but it should be more in-depth training, using special equipment, that is, special equipment specifically for training. Because it was not enough to see the turnstiles once and hear how to use them, this skill must be simply hammered into the muscles at the level of how you breathe. That is, it must be just an instinct.  And the algorithm of actions must be absolutely clear to every fighter.  It's strange for me to hear this actually, because all these 8 years a large number of volunteers conducted training.

In fact, we have a very high level of providing pre-medical care during these 8 years and gained a lot of experience, but it turned out that this was not enough, unfortunately.

I don't know what the problem is and who is responsible for it. At the start of a large-scale invasion, I was more or less comfortable with the units I knew could handle it. In fact, everyone I saw, whom I treated in Mariupol in the hospital, was delivered in the best possible way. But here we are talking about such units as Azov and marine infantry battalions. Also, the border guards showed themselves very well. In other words, the level of provision of home medicine was very serious and high. Unfortunately, I do not know what happened here, due to the fact that Mariupol was generally well prepared both in terms of medicine and training.  Unfortunately, my journey was interrupted in the middle of March and I don't know how it went here. But I can assume that due to the fact that many people had no idea about tactical medicine, that maybe someone even lost their life due to an inadequate level of training.

If we are honest even with ourselves, a large number of our soldiers are in captivity. It is probably wrong to even say a large number, because any number of our people is a large, incredibly huge number and each of these lives is very important for Ukraine and Ukrainians who are fighting for these lives. Literally recently, a crazy tragedy happened, as far as I'm concerned, Olenivka. We knew that there were two colonies in this settlement, we knew that a large number of Mariupol residents, including doctors and military personnel, were there. I suspect that the conditions and peculiarities of treatment of people with military background are the same, civilians may be treated differently, but nevertheless what happened in Olenivka, it is impossible to comprehend neither soul nor mind. How do you feel about the world's reaction to what happened? Do you feel that the response or this reaction was commensurate with this disaster?

This whole reaction of the West reminded me of the story when a plane with the entire leadership of Poland crashed in Russia near Smolensk. And the world said that it could not be that the Russians were involved in this, because it is too obvious and I even heard that "he himself caught fire", "he fell himself". And then a few years later, after the research, after investigative actions, it was found out that the plane was shot down by the Russians.  

That is, the volume of the tragedy is so overwhelming that people refuse to believe that such a thing is possible at all. There is a tendency when you fear something very much, for example, you look at something on Facebook and you see a post that really affects you, and instead of reading to the end, looking at those photos, you just deny it, promote it further. In the same way, the world promotes it further, because it is afraid to even believe in this horror.  That this is possible.  In the same way, people perceive being in captivity. For many, it is impossible to imagine at all how to go through it. And they're trying to get through it, too. It is like you would think about a serious illness that you are doomed to have. That is, your consciousness refuses to perceive this information. But, if you are not honest with yourself, you will start a disease that will be already at an incurable stage when you come to your senses and start treatment. Because of this, I think that the world simply needs to choose more carefully the words that they will perceive and inform them in a more voluminous way so that they know what is really happening.  And there, in fact, it's hell, it's just hell.

What can we do? A large number of Ukrainians, who are now in Ukraine, go to the shares. And very gently and delicately, but draw the attention of the authorities to the fact that there is very little information.  We would like to know if any action is being taken to try to bring these people home. Many people abroad go to events, perform, often these are really crowded events, but for some reason, we have not seen an appropriate reaction yet. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International allow themselves some reports in which they actually record violations of humanitarian law by the Armed Forces simply because we defend ourselves on our land and in our territory.  Nevertheless, I was very surprised by the fact that no conscious assessment of what happened in Olenivka was ever given.  Perhaps they are waiting for the results of the investigation, but the fact that our people were on the territory of Olenivka, that is, not in the deep rear, as it should be, is already a violation and Russia can be held accountable for this. The world doesn't do that.  In your opinion, could the reason for this be that Russia has its agents everywhere?  And when we talk about the International Committee of the Red Cross, human rights organizations, the UN, after all. It has its own elements incorporated everywhere, and therefore we cannot achieve appropriate justice, at least in rhetoric.

Of course, I can speculate about agents of influence who are already in these organizations. But there is another point here that Ukraine allows any inspectors in all territories without any obstacles: please, you can come in, write an application and we will show you everything you want. This is a medical fact, as they say, and any international organization has the right and uses this right to investigate and check the condition of detainees and the conditions of detention. Ukraine does not create any obstacles or obstacles on this path.  As for the so-called DPR and LPR, they simply hide all information.

During the three months that I was there, not once did anyone from the Red Cross, no Amnesty International, no one was nearby, and there were no even rumors about it.

Although usually in these facilities where prisoners are held, these rumors spread very, very quickly. And often the owners of these institutions take advantage of the fact to impose some information and spread it as if it were a rumor. For example, that Kyiv is taken, or this person is bad, or this person is alive, even though they tortured him. This is again a manipulation that they resort to all the time. It's just that the international organizations don't have access to the detention facilities, they use the information they have, and of course if there are agents of influence there, they add dark colors not in our favor.

In your opinion, is it necessary to raise the issue of reforming all these international organizations and institutions? Because their effectiveness, as we see in the case of our war with the Russian Federation, is very doubtful.

This should be handled by the relevant international control bodies, where a full investigation would be conducted of both the connections of officials in these international organizations and, possibly, of their financial documents. Maybe someone is simply on the payroll of the Russians, maybe someone is being blackmailed, because they are masters at it, they know it well. You know how you can arrange blackmail, there are many ways to influence a person. But we can't do that, an international special commission has to deal with it, which may need to be created. I would be very happy if it was possible. If I could influence it, I would do it right now.

We noted just now that it would be necessary to change in international organizations, perhaps, in order for them to be more effective. And we have to change something in ourselves, Yulia? Why I ask, the fact is that recently I spoke with Germans and Americans, people who voluntarily came here to volunteer and help us. Someone went to fight, someone helped purely for humanitarian reasons. But when I asked them why they decided to come, it's dangerous, each of you has your own life, it would seem, and still you're here, very cool.  And they say: it was such audacity to attack you. And when I say that they actually did it back in 2014, both formally and practically, the annexation of foreign territories is an act of military aggression. And they remarked to me: no, of course we heard something about Crimea, for example, but they believed that something was happening between you here inside the country.  I was absolutely shocked and came to the conclusion that maybe we did not work well somewhere on the informational, diplomatic front. How do you rate the volume of our country's voice now, when we need to convince the world that it is necessary to get our people out of Russian captivity? Are we doing everything necessary and maybe something needs to be changed?

I am not at all sure that we have at least some more or less acceptable plan for the future regarding information and interaction with international society. This should be done, as it is now fashionable to say, by specially trained people who develop a clear plan and algorithm of actions, for example, in the event of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. What messages to which international organizations, how will it be spread, who will be informed. The same with captives.  The state does very little, if anything, to inform the international community. Everything that is done is done at the expense of volunteers, volunteers, private individuals, that is, those who are heard.  For some reason, I don't know why, I have not heard of any planned action, support action, information action (from the state - Ed.) regarding the prisoners. Everything people do, for example, I'm in Britain now, they do it on their own. And the issue is not raised at all at the international level, and that is strange. That is, people who left Ukraine raise these questions.  Yesterday I was at an event dedicated to the supply of ambulances for the front and civilian hospitals of Ukraine, and people came out with posters "will to the Azovians", "will to the doctors". What I keep saying, what I keep saying in all interviews with foreign media. I believe that if the state does not undertake such a mission, then we must. But there is another side of the coin: sometimes it is better not to shout about some specific persons in general, sometimes these issues must be resolved quietly.

So, it turns out, we also need to balance so as not to harm this sensitive process, and at the same time ensure sufficient attention of the world to it.  Finally, Yulia, I will ask you, what do you think the victory of Ukraine should look like, the final victory over the Russian aggressor? What can we be in this victory and in general, what is it for you?

For me, this is definitely the moment when justice will reign in our land, when we take what is ours. And perhaps we will help the peoples of Russia throw off the yoke under which they are now. Sometimes they don't realize it themselves. There are people who are aware of this, but they do not have the opportunity, sometimes the courage, to raise their voice and say that this government is unjust. Victory will not be the achievement of the goal, it will only be an intermediate stage, in my opinion.  Because we have a lot of work ahead of us and we will have to assert our independence with a lot of work. And we have a lot ahead of us. First of all, it will be necessary to rebuild the country that got away in this war. We see bombed out cities, destroyed. We still don't even know how many soldiers and civilians died, how many children we lost. And the victory is just another step towards the formation of the chic, beautiful, strong and inspired state that I dream of.