{"id":297805,"date":"2025-07-28T06:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T06:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297805\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T06:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T06:31:11","slug":"a-former-pow-in-russia-rebuilds-his-life-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/297805\/","title":{"rendered":"A former POW in Russia rebuilds his life in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Since his release from a Russian prison<\/a> in April, Stanislav Tarnavskyi has been in a hurry to build the life in Ukraine he dreamed about during three years of captivity.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old has proposed to his girlfriend, bought an apartment and adopted a golden retriever. And that was just what he accomplished one week in July.<\/p>\n

But as busy as he is rekindling old relationships and creating new ones, Tarnavskyi cannot shake the trauma<\/a> he and thousands of other Ukrainian soldiers experienced as prisoners of war. The U.N. says many endured beatings, starvation and humiliation at the hands of their captors \u2014 experiences that will leave lifelong scars.<\/p>\n

Tarnavskyi, who was captured during the battle for Mariupol<\/a> in April of 2022, regularly has nightmares about the prisons where he was held.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see the officers who watched over us. I dream they want to harm me, catch me,\u201d he said. When he wakes up, his heart pounds, anxiety surges \u2014 until he realizes he is in the outskirts of Kyiv, where he was forced to move because Russia occupied his hometown of Berdiansk.<\/p>\n

As the three-year war drags on<\/a>, Tarnavskyi is one of more than 5,000 former POWs back in Ukraine rehabilitating with the help of regular counseling. Regardless of any physical injuries that may require attention, psychologists say it is vital to monitor former POWs for years after their release; the cost of war, they say, echoes for generations.<\/p>\n

A marriage proposal <\/p>\n

In a photography studio high above Kyiv, Ukraine\u2019s capital, sunlight floods the white walls. After a shoot that lasted several hours Tarnavskyi said the brightness was hurting his eyes, which are still sensitive from years spent in a dark cell.<\/p>\n

But his mood couldn\u2019t be dimmed. The girlfriend who waited for his return had just consented to his surprise proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you very much, I am very glad that you waited for me,\u201d Tarnavskyi said, holding a thick bouquet of pink roses and a ring. \u201cYou have always been my support, and I hope you will remain so for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarnavskyi said it was the thought of Tetiana Baieva \u2014 whom he met in 2021 \u2014 that helped stop him from committing suicide three times during captivity. <\/p>\n

Still, he finds it hard to talk with Baieva about his time in prison. He doesn\u2019t want to be pitied. <\/p>\n

Soon after he returned home, he was paranoid, feeling watched \u2014 a reaction to constant surveillance in prison. \u201cIf you stepped out of line, they\u2019d (Russians) come and beat you. I still get flashbacks when I see (surveillance) cameras. If I see one, I get nervous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But with each passing week, he is feeling better, progress Tarnavskyi credits to the work he is doing with a psychologist.<\/p>\n

Lifelong care is vital<\/p>\n

Any small stimulus \u2014 a smell, a breeze, a color \u2014 can trigger traumatic memories for POWs, says Kseniia Voznitsyna, the director of Ukraine\u2019s Lisova Polyana mental health center for veterans on the outskirts of Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Yet contrary to stereotypes, ex-POWs aren\u2019t more aggressive. \u201cThey tend to isolate themselves, avoid large gatherings, and struggle with trust,\u201d said Voznitsyna.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say time heals \u2014 five or ten years, maybe \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t,\u201d she added. \u201cIt just feels less intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 2014 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine found that Israeli ex-POWs and combat veterans tracked over 35 years had higher mortality rates, chronic illnesses and worse self-rated health \u2014 conditions partly tied to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

The authors of the study said that is why it is crucial to monitor ex-POWs and give them specialized medical and psychological care as they age.<\/p>\n

That logic rings true to Denys Zalizko, a 21-year-old former POW who has been back in Ukraine for less than three months but is already sure his recovery will take a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t fool yourself. Even if you really want to, you will never forget. It will always haunt you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

An artist to be <\/p>\n

Zalizko survived torture, suicide attempts and relentless beatings during roughly 15 months in Russian captivity. <\/p>\n

The first time his mother, Maria Zalizko, saw him after his release, she barely recognized him. He was thin and appeared \u201cbroken\u201d, she said, with torment in his eyes.<\/p>\n

Zalizko\u2019s physical appearance is now almost completely different. His skin looks healthy, his muscles are taut and he has lots of energy. But still there is sadness in his eyes.<\/p>\n

Two things keep him moving forward and help clear his mind: music and exercise.<\/p>\n

\u201cPauses and stillness bring anxiety,\u201d says Zalizko.<\/p>\n

Like Tarnavskyi, he is receiving mandatory counseling at the Lisova Polyana mental health center. And like many former POWs, he still battles hypervigilance \u2014 listening for threats, scanning his surroundings. At night, sleep comes in fragments, and that was true even before a recent uptick in nightly drone attacks by the Russian army.<\/p>\n

For the families of POWs, the reintegration process is also a struggle. <\/p>\n

A psychologist advised Maria Zalizko to give her son space, to avoid calling him too often. But it is Denys who often calls her, sometimes singing over the phone \u2014 a skill she taught him as a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love music. Music unites,\u201d he said, touching the tattoo of a treble clef behind his ear \u2014 inked after his return. Even in captivity, he sang quietly to himself, composing songs in his mind about love, home and war. Now he dreams of turning that passion into a career as an artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve become stronger now,\u201d Zalizko said. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of death, not afraid of losing an arm or a leg, not afraid of dying instantly. I fear nothing anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Since his release from a Russian prison in April, Stanislav Tarnavskyi has been in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[2665,10980,4179,105,8615,10546,110284,32630,332,7661,110285,657,7662,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-297805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-anxiety","9":"tag-assisted-living","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-international-news","13":"tag-kyiv","14":"tag-maria-zalizko","15":"tag-prisoners-of-war","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","18":"tag-stanislav-tarnavskyi","19":"tag-ukraine","20":"tag-ukraine-government","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114929459690459546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}