Mom Says Son Was Forcibly Taken Nearly 700 Miles from Ukraine to Russia and Shown Propaganda
ANDREY BORODULIN/AFP via Getty Ukraine war
After she was forced to leave her 21-year-old son behind in Mariupol, a woman who fled the besieged city in southern Ukraine now says he's been taken to Russia by force.
Natalia Demish told NBC News in a story published Sunday that she is afraid of what will happen to her son Yuri as Russia's war against its neighbor rages on more than two months after the violence began.
Demish, 40, told NBC News she spent 34 days in hiding with her husband, his children and his parents in Mariupol — a key location in Russia's invasion strategy and the site of some of the war's most horrific attacks — before absconding in a caravan of cars to Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles to the northwest.
Yuri, an engineering student, had been sheltering in Mariupol with his father, Demish told NBC News. Mother and son were unable to communicate before she fled March 29 because much of the city's infrastructure, including telecommunications and the internet, have been knocked out.
"In the city, there is no heat, electricity or water. All stores are looted. It's impossible to survive there," Demish said. "People were ready to go anywhere just to be warm and have food."
When she finally heard from her son, she said, Yuri told her he and his father had walked 25 miles to Novoazovsk after invading soldiers told them they would be safe in the town held by Russian-backed separatists.
Days later, according to NBC, Yuri wrote to Demish using a messaging app and told his mother, "We are forcibly going to Russia today."
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Evgeniy Maloletka/AP/Shutterstock Damage at Mariupol's children's hospital
When they spoke by phone later, Yuri said he was on a train but didn't know its destination. His mother told him to jump from the transport, but he said that wasn't an option because "all the windows are shut," according to the report.
"Not knowing where my son was," Demish, who is now in Dnipro, Ukraine, told NBC News. "It was killing me."
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Unlawful deportation is considered a war crime by the United Nations. Last month a Kremlin spokesperson denied reports that Ukrainian citizens were being forcibly removed from the country and taken to Russia. "Lies," the government said, according to The Washington Post.
Ukrainians tell another story.
After more than a week, Demish told NBC News, Yuri called again and said he and the others with him had traveled for three days before arriving in a Russian village almost 700 miles from Mariupol.
Yuri said he and the others had been processed as refugees, were housed in wooden structures surrounded by forest and that Russian volunteers were providing them with food and medicine, according to his mom.
The group was reportedly shown videos that alleged Ukraine was not a real country but rather a part of Russia, a widely disputed claim that has been used by President Vladimir Putin as justification for the invasion.
"He said they told them that Ukraine never existed as a country," Demish told NBC News. "When he objected and said history can't be rewritten, he said two men approached him and he was questioned for two hours."
EyePress News/Shutterstock Mariupol, Ukraine, in the wake of an attack during the Russian invasion
During the interrogation, Yuri "was told that he would be recruited into the army in Ukraine if he did, and he would become cannon fodder, but he was now in Russia, a great country," according to his mom.
Though she wants to return to her home, Demish said she wouldn't go back to Mariupol until it was liberated from Russian troops. For now, she's desperately searching for a way to get her son out of Russia, possibly to a third country like Georgia or Turkey.
"I am worried that they will take our Ukrainian men, put Russian uniforms on them, get them into a bus and take them to Ukraine," Deimsh told NBC News. "I am afraid there will be brainwashing and they will force them to take up arms and they will say, if you want to free up the city, go fight."
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Russia's attack on Ukraine continues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
Details of the fighting change by the day, but thousands of civilians have already been reported dead or wounded, including children, though the actual number of deaths is difficult to determine.
More than 5 million have fled the country as refugees — and half are children, according to the United Nations. Millions more, like Demish, have been displaced inside Ukraine.
The invasion, ordered by Putin, has drawn condemnation around the world and increasingly severe economic sanctions against Russia.
With NATO forces amassed in the region, various countries are offering aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
"Nobody is going to break us, we're strong, we're Ukrainians," he told the European Union in a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, "Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness."The Russian attack on Ukraine is an evolving story, with information changing quickly. Follow PEOPLE's complete coverage of the war here, including stories from citizens on the ground and ways to help.
