Returned at 9 months pregnant: the story of a doctor who was released from Russian captivity

Source: Ukrainska Pravda
Author: Yana Osadcha

On September 22, military medic Mariana Mamonova from the Rivne region, who is nine months pregnant, was released from Russian captivity.

Mariana and over 200 other Ukrainian soldiers who defended Mariupol were exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk and Russian soldiers.

Mariana was the first to step off the bus that brought the Ukrainians back to their homeland. She is currently in the hospital, resting and preparing for childbirth, and in a few days she will finally see her parents, who are already on their way to her.

This happy reunion was preceded by long months of waiting: the woman had been held captive since early spring 2022.

"Ukrainska Pravda. Life" spoke with Mariana’s sister Oksana and her friend Ksenia, who shared her story.

She was passionate about her profession
Mariana chose the medical profession as her calling. She graduated from medical school and then studied to become a military medic at an academy in Kyiv.

“She was passionate about her profession; she said that today our country needs military medics who will provide assistance to the soldiers in the combat zone.

She said that most people take the attitude of ‘my house is on the edge of town,’ but she wanted to prove that you can achieve a lot through your own efforts,” says the woman’s sister, Oksana.

After completing her training, Maryana was sent to Berdyansk, and starting in 2017, the military medic went on rotations to the ATO zone, where she provided assistance to soldiers.

In an interview with the BBC, her mother recalls how her daughter told a story about a young man who died in her arms, and at that moment his phone rang.

“Mariana said it was his mother calling. I imagined then what it must be like for a mother to hear that her child is gone," the woman says.

She announced her pregnancy with an emoji of a mom and dad with a small child
Mariana was sent to serve in Mariupol even before the full-scale war began. It was there that she met her future husband, Vasyl. According to his family, he managed to leave Mariupol for Lviv.

When the Russian offensive on the city began, the medic was at the Illich Plant in Mariupol with her comrades and local residents. She didn’t contact her family often. She said she was alive and that they were running out of medicine, weapons, and food.

The woman found out she was pregnant during the war.

Her husband Vasyl told the BBC that Mariana managed to share this important news with him.

“She really wanted to tell me in person, but instead she sent me little hints—emojis of a mom and dad with a small child,” he says.

Mariana’s relatives say there were days when the pregnant woman would eat only two apples all day. She would lie down in her sleeping bag for a few minutes, cry, think about her mother’s delicious meals, and feel a little better. She said that in the first weeks of her pregnancy, she constantly wanted to cry and eat, but the war was raging, and as a medic, she had to help people, including carrying the wounded.

Her friend Ksenia showed her correspondence with Mariana from March 2022. Ksenia asks her: “Have you eaten? Have you slept?” “Hi. Everything’s fine, I’m holding on,” Mariana replied on March 2.

After that, there was no news from the military medic for 10 long days. And then two words came from her: “I’m alive.”
Mariana was in Olenivka
Her sister Oksana says they found out that Mariana was in captivity from a Russian video sent by acquaintances.

In the video, a Kadyrovite addresses her, saying, “I see there’s a girl here.”

“She was standing there in a pea coat, small and petite, all alone among the men,” her sister says.

During the entire time Mariana was in captivity, she was allowed to speak with her family only once, in May.

“She was in Olenivka; they allowed her one phone call. She said she was alive, that her conditions had improved—they feed her once a day and give her vitamins,” Oksana recounts.

However, former prisoner Anna Vorosheva, who was held with Mamonova, told the BBC that Maryana was in a room with more than 20 other prisoners. And when she arrived, she had to sleep on the floor.

“The women were talking to each other all the time, and she told us she was pregnant. Everyone immediately tried to help her—they gave her food and made sure she got some fresh air,” says Anna.

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Later, Mariana was transferred to a room with fewer people, and her cellmates made sure she could sleep in one of the two beds in the room every night.

According to Vorosheva, Maryana was optimistic, confident that she would be exchanged, and felt pretty good.

“She’s a doctor; she understands her body. The baby started moving on time, so she knew everything was fine,” says the former inmate.

Meanwhile, Mariana’s family tried to find out as much as possible about her condition.

“We had someone who passed on information. We were told that Maryana was being held separately from everyone else and was allowed out for a walk under guard once or twice a week,” says the girl’s sister.

The family reached out to the Red Cross, to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, and to the “hotline” for relatives of captives.

"It took the Red Cross four months to confirm that Mariana was in captivity. There was a time when they wanted to exchange her; she was already on the bus, but for unknown reasons, they made her get off.

The ‘hotline’ told us that information about Mariana would come later,” recalls Oksana.

The public also joined the campaign for Mariana’s release: flash mobs and rallies were held in her support. Women posted photos of her and themselves during their pregnancies on their social media pages to draw the attention of the global community.

  Her family was worried not only about Mariana and how the delivery would go, but also about her unborn child, who is due at the end of September.

“It’s impossible to keep a child in such conditions, so they might just take the baby away. Mariana is probably devastated by this. A mother and her children are sacred everywhere... Let them free her. Let them release her out of humanity. She’s a good person; she’s like a little ray of sunshine,” said her husband Vasyl.

Finally, on September 22, Mariana Mamonova was brought to Ukraine. Her sister Oksana assured that the former captive is feeling well and is currently in the hospital.

“She is resting and preparing for childbirth,” she says. Oksana also reported that Maryana will see her parents in the coming days, as they are already on their way to her.

It is unknown whether Maryana will have a boy or a girl. According to her sister, she did not want to find out the sex of the baby so she could surprise herself.

This is an automatic translation generated by DeepL.