Mariupol was doomed. Relentless Russian bombing had turned streets into ruins and courtyards into graveyards.
However a number of metres underground within the south-eastern Ukrainian metropolis, a romance was blooming.
Valeria Subotina, 33, had been sheltering within the huge Azovstal steelworks, the ultimate stronghold within the metropolis, because it was surrounded by Russian forces in spring 2022.
She had taken cowl in certainly one of dozens of Soviet-era bomb shelters constructed to face up to nuclear conflict, deep beneath the economic plant.
“You go down a semi-collapsed staircase, transfer by means of passages and tunnels, and go additional and additional down. Lastly, you attain this concrete dice, a room,” Valeria says.
Within the bunker – alongside troopers and civilians – Valeria was working with the military’s Azov brigade as a press officer, speaking the horrors of Russia’s months-long siege to international media.
There, too, was her fiancé Andriy Subotin, a 34-year-old Ukrainian military officer, defending the plant.
The pair had discovered one another by means of work – Mariupol’s Border Guard Company – round three years earlier than the siege.
When Andriy met Valeria, it was love at first sight.
“He was particular, it felt so heat to be round him,” Valeria says. “He was at all times variety and by no means refused to assist anybody.”
Andriy was an optimist, she says. He knew the way to be comfortable and located pleasure in small issues: sunny climate, smiles, associates’ firm.
“On the primary day we met, I realised Andriy was very completely different to others.”
Inside three months, that they had moved in collectively, renting a small one-storey home in Mariupol with a backyard. The couple began constructing a life collectively.
“We travelled lots, went to the mountains, met associates,” Valeria says.
“We fished collectively and spent a lot of time open air. We visited theatres, live shows and exhibitions. Life was full.”
They determined to get married and dreamed of a giant church wedding ceremony with household and associates. They picked wedding ceremony rings.
Valeria give up her job and commenced to nurture her artistic aspect, writing and publishing poems concerning the earlier years of fierce combating with Russia in Mariupol.
“For a few years earlier than the full-scale invasion, I used to be actually comfortable,” she recollects.
Every part modified in February 2022.
Spring had introduced the solar to Valeria and Andriy’s backyard, and the primary flowers had been showing.
“I used to be beginning to get pleasure from spring,” says Valeria. “We knew about Putin’s threats and realised there can be a conflict, however I did not wish to give it some thought.“
A couple of days earlier than 24 February, the day the full-scale invasion started, Andriy urged Valeria to go away the town. She refused.
“I knew that it doesn’t matter what occurred, I needed to be in Mariupol, I needed to defend my metropolis.”
Weeks later, they had been each underground, within the Azovstal bunkers.
They solely acquired to see one another often, however once they did these had been moments of “pure happiness”.
At this level, Mariupol was nearing a humanitarian disaster.
Strikes to infrastructure had lower water and energy provides to elements of the town, and there have been meals shortages. Civilian houses and buildings, too, had been destroyed.
On 15 April, a big bomb was dropped on the plant. Valeria narrowly escaped dying.
“I used to be discovered amongst lifeless our bodies, the one one alive. On the one hand, a miracle, however on the opposite, a horrible tragedy.”
She needed to spend eight days in an underground hospital within the plant with extreme concussion.
“The odor of blood and decay was in all places,” she says.
“It was a really scary place the place our wounded comrades, with amputated limbs, had been mendacity in all places. They could not get correct assist as a result of there have been only a few medical provides.”
Andriy was deeply frightened for Valeria after her harm and began planning a marriage proper there, within the bunker.
“It felt like he was in a rush, like we would not have any extra time,” says Valeria.
“He made a few wedding ceremony rings out of tin foil together with his personal palms, and requested me to marry him. After all, I stated sure.
“He was the love of my life. And our rings product of tin foil – they had been excellent.”
On 5 Might, the couple had been married by a commander stationed on the plant. They’d a ceremony within the bunker, carrying their uniforms as wedding ceremony apparel.
Andriy promised his spouse that they might have a correct wedding ceremony once they returned dwelling, with actual rings and a white costume.
Two days later, on 7 Might, he was killed in motion on the metal plant, by Russian shelling.
Valeria didn’t discover out about it immediately.
“Folks typically say you’re feeling one thing inside when a cherished one dies. However I, quite the opposite, was in a great temper. I used to be married and in love.”
One of many hardest issues was having to carry in a “lump of grief”, as she was defending her metropolis alongside “her boys” – comrades – at Azovstal.
“I used to be a bride, I used to be a spouse, and now I’m a widow. The scariest phrase,” she says.
“I couldn’t react the best way I needed to at that second.
“My boys had been at all times round. They sat subsequent to me, they slept subsequent to me, they introduced me meals and supported me,” she says. “I might solely cry once they weren’t watching.”
At one level, it felt just like the worry of being within the conflict zone was blunted by her grief.
“I didn’t care any extra… You simply perceive that there are lots of extra folks ready for you within the subsequent world, if it exists, than there are right here with you.”
The Ukrainian troopers at Azovstal lastly surrendered on 20 Might. Valeria discovered herself among the many 900 prisoners of conflict forcibly taken by the Russian army out of Mariupol.
“We stared by means of the home windows of the bus at these buildings we cherished, at these streets we knew so properly. They destroyed and killed all the things I cherished – my metropolis, my associates, and my husband.”
Valeria survived 11 months of Russian captivity, and has advised of torture and abuse. Andriy typically appeared in her goals.
In April final yr, she was launched as a part of a prisoner trade, and is now again in Ukraine.
It’s tough to to say how many individuals had been killed because of the Russian shelling of Mariupol, however native authorities say the quantity exceeds 20,000.
In accordance with the UN, 90% of residential buildings had been broken or destroyed, and our bodies are nonetheless within the rubble.
So far as Valeria is aware of, her husband’s physique stays on the Azovstal metal plant within the now-occupied metropolis.
Generally, she says, she seems to the sky and speaks to him.