Ukrainian mother captured by Russia describes ordeal of being separated from child for more than a year
A Ukrainian servicewoman captured by Russia has described the ordeal of being separated from her child for almost a year-and-a-half.
Ekaterina Skopina’s daughter Anna-Maria was taken in by relatives while she and her husband were held captive by Russia, having served during operations in Mariupol.
After spending nine months in captivity, a period in which she claims she and her husband suffered torture, she was released.
However, she said the relatives, who were sympathetic to Russia, refused to give her daughter back and that she was kept in Russian-occupied territory
“She was in captivity for almost one and a half years,” Ms Skopina told The World with Yalda Hakim.
“They [the relative] refused to bring the child. They blocked me on social media and blocked my phone number, so I couldn’t call.
“Then they forcibly changed the child’s citizenship, through which they took money, as they took guardianship over her.”
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Ekaterina Skopina
Anna-Maria, seven, finally returned to Ms Skopina and her husband in May last year, following a mediation process involving Qatari officials.
Ms Skopina was speaking from Doha, where 20 Ukrainian and Russian families, including 37 children, were hosted earlier this month after being reunited.
Twenty Ukrainian and Russian families, including 37 children, were hosted in Doha earlier this month after being reunited. Pic: Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“We are very grateful to Qatar for helping and participating in negotiations,” Ms Skopina said.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the families were being hosted in Doha as part of an initiative, carried out in partnership with officials from Ukraine and Russia, to provide them with medical and psycho-social support.
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“[The initiative] is to provide comprehensive support that not only addresses immediate needs but also lays the groundwork for long-term healing and integration,” the ministry said in a statement.
Another of those to visit Doha was Sergei Sinitsky, whose niece and nephew were recently repatriated from a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine following the death of their parents.
Sergei Sinitsky
“When this situation occurred and the children were left alone, I began to deal with the issue of how to bring them back, how to bring them to me,” he said.
“When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, the children were in the occupied part of Ukraine, they were in Mariupol.
“When all this started, they moved to the Moscow region and stayed there. There they attended a regular Russian school and life was more or less normal.
“The only thing is, when my sister passed away, the children were with a distant relative. Their life there was not very good.
“For the last six months, the children haven’t even attended school, there was no decent food. In my opinion, if they had stayed there, they would have had no future.”
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He said the children wanted to return to him, because he was their closest relative.
“The process of returning the children took several months, and they constantly asked when it would finally happen. It was quite difficult,” he added.
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former “thug” and “pit bull”, has been accused of lying about a phone call he says he made to the former US president about payments to ex porn star Stormy Daniels.
Cohen, a lawyer who worked for the Trump Organisation from 2006 to 2017, has been giving evidence in the case about hush money payments to Ms Daniels – in an attempt to cover up an alleged sexual encounter in 2006.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, called into question an important detail – a phone call made by Cohen to Trump’s assistant, Keith Schiller, on 24 October 2016.
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Cohen, 57, has maintained that during that call he spoke to Trump (who was either given the phone by Mr Schiller or placed on loudspeaker – we don’t know which) and told him he had paid Ms Daniels $130,000 in hush money on his behalf.
But Mr Blanche called this into doubt – showing the jury a number of interactions suggesting Cohen was in contact with Mr Schiller about a different issue at the same time, namely that he was receiving harassing phone calls and texts from a 14-year-old child.
“That was a lie – you did not talk to President Trump on that night, you talked to Keith Schiller about what we just went through,” Mr Blanche said.
Cohen said that, based on his records, he believes he spoke to Trump about the Stormy Daniels matter.
“We are not asking for your belief,” Mr Blanche said. “This jury does not want to hear what you think happened.”
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Donald Trump in court on Thursday. Pic: Reuters
That exchange was part of several hours of questioning which apparently sought to paint a picture of Cohen as someone who is eager to see his former boss behind bars.
Mr Blanche played jurors audio clips of Cohen saying the case “fills me with delight” and that imagining Trump and his family in prison made him feel “giddy with hope and laughter”.
“Does the outcome of this trial affect you personally?” Mr Blanche asked.
“Yes,” Cohen replied. He is due to return to the witness stand on Monday.
Michael Cohen (right) was Donald Trump’s fixer. Pic: AP
Cohen worked as the former president’s fixer. He once described himself as Trump’s “spokesman, thug, pit bull and lawless lawyer”.
He once said he would take a bullet for his boss and admitted at the end of questioning on Tuesday that he “violated my moral compass” while working for Trump.
Hush money payouts are not illegal, but Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide it – a claim he denies.
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