"Mom, thank you for saving Dad": the story of a marine's family who now believes in a New Year's miracle

Source: Ukrainska Pravda
Author: Olena Barsukova

On New Year's Eve, Mariupol defender Maksym Skutelnik returned from captivity; his 4-year-old son had not seen him for over three years.

A sailor with the 501st Separate Battalion, which operated as part of the 36th Marine Brigade, was taken prisoner on April 4, 2022, at the Illich Plant in Mariupol.

Waiting for him were his wife, Ilona, and his son, Danil, who had last seen his father in December 2021. Together with his mother, the boy attended weekly protests holding signs reading “When will Dad hug me?” and “Bring Dad home from captivity.”
On December 29, 2024, “Ukrainska Pravda. Life" conducted an interview with Ilona about the third year of separation and waiting.

"Last New Year’s Eve, I made a wish that my husband would be exchanged by the end of 2024. Unfortunately, that’s almost impossible now,” Ilona told us at the time.

And on December 30, she saw her husband free and was able to hug him for the first time in three years.

Now, "UP. Life" spoke with the Marine’s wife not about their separation, but about his long-awaited return, which became a New Year’s miracle for their family.

 
On December 30, Ilona saw her husband, Maksym Skutelnik, for the first time in nearly three years. She says she wanted to cry, but not a single tear fell—as if she had already cried them all out.

Ilona says she had a premonition that her beloved would return, because her friends had dreamed of him the day before the exchange. But she couldn’t believe her luck until the very last moment.

"I didn’t know that Maksym would be in this exchange, but the girls involved in the exchange process started hinting at it. I was at the previous exchange organized by the 501st Battalion’s civic organization to meet the guys from our unit. The head of our civic organization wrote to me that there was a chance to go to this one too.

I decided to meet the guys. It’s much easier to get through the exchange when you’re among people who were lucky this time,” says Ilona.

The soldier’s 4-year-old son also seemed to sense the exchange was coming.

“A month before the exchange, my son came up to me, hugged me, and said, ‘Mom, thank you for saving Dad.’ I started crying so hard—I mean, I didn’t save anyone…

My son and I are regular participants in the “FreeAzov” protests; we actively take part in demonstrations in support of the marines. I told him, ‘We have to go to the rally so that our dad can be home, so that they bring him back.’ I thought he was just making things up. But apparently, the child had some kind of premonition,” Ilona shares.

Maksym is currently undergoing treatment. After returning from captivity, he began writing to his wife with news about his fellow prisoners, and Ilona relayed to their families that they were alive.

"My husband is in poor condition; of course, he has health issues, but he speaks well, and we’re already talking about various topics…

I understand how it feels when the exchange has taken place, but your [beloved] isn’t there. I wanted to support the families and pass on news from the guys in captivity,” the woman says.

Danil, who hasn’t seen his dad in over three years, has already spoken with him on the phone. Soon the whole family will be reunited.

"My son immediately says, 'Dad, I missed you, when are we going to see you? I want to visit you,' 'Mom, let’s go see Dad, when will he be home?' It’s as if he’s been waiting for him as if these three years never happened.

We plan to visit my husband this weekend so he can adjust a bit and come to his senses, because he hasn’t slept yet. With so many emotions, it’s hard to fall asleep,” the woman shares.

 
Ilona and Maksym met in Berdiansk on City Day in 2016—thanks to mutual friends. Ilona was working as a hairdresser at the time, and Maksym had just signed a contract with the 36th Separate Marine Brigade named after Rear Admiral M. Bilinsky.

"After we met, we went to the movies, but then we didn’t see each other for the first six months—we only talked on the phone. He was just heading out on his first rotation to the ATO zone, and we spent that time talking on the phone. I guess since then, waiting has become a burden for me," Ilona said in an interview with "UP. Life" the day before the exchange.

The family lived in Berdiansk, but Ilona often visited her boyfriend in Mariupol. On December 26, 2020, the couple welcomed a son.

“My husband had always dreamed of having a son. We planned the pregnancy, and he helped me a lot during childbirth. I’m sure he was the only man on the entire floor of the maternity ward who was present during the delivery.

In the first few days, I barely even held the baby in my arms—Maksym did everything. He’s a very kind, caring dad,” the woman shared.

The family lived by the sea. Every evening, Ilona would take the baby for a walk along the waterfront, and when Maxim came home, they would all go fishing together, camp out, and spend time in nature.

In December 2021, Maxim left for a rotation that turned out to be his last. On his son’s first birthday, December 26, 2021, he was granted leave to come home. That was the last time the boy saw his dad.

On February 19, 2022, the Marine stopped by home briefly, but only saw his beloved, as their son was asleep. And a few days later, full-scale war broke out.

“There was something in Maksym’s eyes… I felt that I wasn’t seeing him off the way I usually do,” Ilona recalls.

Maksym asked his family to leave for a safer place. Ilona and her son went to her grandmother’s village near Berdyansk, but it fell under occupation even faster than the city.

Ilona couldn’t withdraw money from her card, and their supplies of diapers and food ran out quickly. To survive, she started working during the first few weeks. Surprisingly, despite the occupation and the war, there was a demand for haircuts in the village.

“When I arrived in the village, where I hadn’t lived in a long time, I had nothing. I needed diapers and formula, so when there was a little bit of light, I’d leave my baby with my friend and go to work.

Maybe that saved me somehow, because the day went by faster, but it was hard because I saw Mariupol burning and heard distant explosions. I kept cutting people’s hair, but it felt strange to me. Maybe that’s why I still can’t get myself into work mode. I just want to devote all my time to my child,” the woman shares.

In the evenings, Ilona would go out into the field to get a signal and talk to her boyfriend. Maksym asked about his wife and son, but didn’t share any details about the defense of Mariupol—he only mentioned that the factory had run out of ammunition.

In April, the connection was lost, and later a video appeared online — soldiers from the 501st Battalion had been captured by the Russians (as the State Bureau of Investigation would later determine, due to the betrayal of the quartermaster, Kostyantyn Bezsmertny, who persuaded the commander to lead the soldiers into captivity).

 
When Maksym was taken prisoner, Ilona left the occupied territory. At first, she lived with her son in Zaporizhzhia, but when rocket attacks on the city became more frequent, she moved to Kyiv.

Five months after Maksym was taken prisoner, Ilona received a letter from him, and a year later, the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed his status as a prisoner of war.

Ilona wrote letters to him the entire time he was in captivity. She also received some information from Maxim’s comrade-in-arms, who returned from captivity as part of an exchange on September 13, 2024.

The woman learned that her beloved was being held in a penal colony in Stary Oskol, Belgorod Oblast. As a result of beatings, Maksym suffered injuries to his knees, as well as pneumonia and an infectious disease.

The soldier who returned from captivity also told Ilona that before going to sleep, the men would always pray to dream of their homes and families.

"The guy who was in the same cell with Maxim said that letters hadn’t arrived for a long time, but then they gave Maxim 11 of my letters all at once.

He said my perfume filled the whole cell—I tried to spray as much perfume as possible on every letter so the guys could at least catch a whiff of something nice. Maksym always kept those letters close to him,” the woman says.

To cope with the separation, Ilona devoted all her free time to participating in protests, meetings at the Coordination Headquarters, and, of course, her son Danil.

The boy loves cars, so Ilona bought him a children’s electric car. And now Maksym has to teach his son how to ride a bike.

“The only things keeping me going are my son and the people around me. My best friend is also waiting for her husband to be released from captivity; I talk to relatives who also go out to the Verkhovna Rada and attend protests every Sunday.

I don’t judge anyone anymore, but many families have lost hope and given up. Maybe it really isn’t up to us. But when I stood with the mothers at the rally and then learned that they had been given back the tortured bodies of their children, I realized we can’t waste any time. “We need to bring our defenders home!” the woman emphasized.

Ilona’s New Year’s wish came true—her beloved is free. But more than 1,300 marines who took part in the defense of Mariupol are still being held captive. Ilona asks people to attend the weekly protests to keep their plight in the public eye.

 

This is an automatic translation generated by DeepL.