Russian soldiers held Olha Menjajlo prisoner in a basement – along with 360 other villagers. She kept a diary throughout the nearly month-long ordeal. The woman went down to the dungeon again with the “press”. The prison is over. But the fear remains.
Steep steps lead down to the basement. Look, Menjajlo falls first. A lamp illuminates the narrow concrete steps. “There was no light,” says Olha. “We sat in the dark the whole time.” There is a musty smell on the walls. The air is damp and cold. “It was stuffy and hot at that time,” says Olha. “You could barely breathe.”
At that time, exactly two years ago, the Russians held 369 villagers prisoner in the basement for almost a month. 369 villagers in 170 square meters. Look, it was one of them.
Look, 47 years old, a tall woman, with brown eyes and medium-long hair, who now walks through this basement, with her hands in her jacket pockets, erect, thoughtful, serene, as if she were inspecting the scene of a crime. There are no more people here, just things left over from the past: chairs and pieces of cardboard to sit on, crumpled mineral water bottles, a dark jacket, a dirty pillow, stuffed animals, Russian newspapers that the occupants let the prisoners read. “Why the President of Russia is carrying out this special operation”, is the headline. “We are freeing you from the Nazis,” the soldiers reportedly announced proudly. So why did they arrest the villagers?