Inna Vnukova’s journey from eastern Ukraine to Estonia is not merely one of geographic relocation, but a profound story of survival and resilience amidst conflict. As she adjusts to her new life, memories of her harrowing escape from a territory under siege linger heavily in her mind.
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Even now, safely in her new home of Estonia, Inna Vnukova says she can’t purge the terrifying memory of living under Russian occupation in eastern Ukraine early in the war and her family’s harrowing escape.
They hid in a damp basement for days in their village of Kudriashivka after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. In the streets, soldiers waving machine guns bullied residents, set up checkpoints and looted homes. There was constant shelling.
“Everyone was very scared and afraid to go outside,” Vnukova told The Associated Press, with troops seeking out Ukrainian sympathizers and civil servants like her and her husband, Oleksii Vnukov.
In mid-March, she decided that she and her 16-year-old son, Zhenya, would flee the village with her brother’s family, even though it meant leaving her husband behind temporarily. They took a risky trip by car to nearby Starobilsk, waving a white sheet amid mortar fire.
“We had already said our goodbyes to life, cursing this Russian world,” said Vnukova, 42. “I’ve been trying to forget this nightmare for four years, but I can’t.”
Many Ukrainians like Vnukova fled the invading forces. Those who stayed risked being detained — or worse — as Russian forces eventually took control of about 20% of the country and its estimated 3 million to 5 million people.
A new, Russian life in the seized regions
After four years of war, life in shattered cities like Mariupol and villages like Kudriashivka remains difficult, with residents facing problems with housing, water, power, heat, and health care. Even President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged they have “many truly pressing, urgent problems.”
In the illegally annexed regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, Russian citizenship, language, and culture is forced on residents, including in school lessons and textbooks. By spring 2025, some 3.5 million people in the four regions had been given Russian passports — a requirement to receive vital services like health care.
Some in the regions say they live in fear of being accused of sympathizing with Ukraine. Many have been imprisoned, beaten and killed, according to human rights activists.
Oleksii Vnukov, a court security officer, stayed behind in the village for nearly two weeks. Russian soldiers twice threatened to kill him, including an instance where he and a friend were dragged off the street by soldiers. But he survived and soon also escaped the village.
The family traveled through Russia before making it to Estonia, where Inna works in a printing house and Oleksii, 43, is an electrician.
“All life is leaving the occupied territories,” Vnukov said. “The people there aren’t living, they’re just surviving.”
Mykhailo Savva of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine said the Russian military’s practice of wielding “systemic and total control” in the regions continues today.
“Even though a significant number of socially active people have already been detained, Russian special services continue to identify disloyal Ukrainians, extract confessions, and continue to detain people,” Savva said. “Residents face such practices as document checks, mass searches, and denunciations on a daily basis.”
Human rights groups say Russian authorities used “filtration camps” to identify potentially disloyal individuals, including anyone who worked for the government, assisted the Ukrainian army, or had relatives in the military, along with journalists, teachers, scientists, and politicians.
Stanislav Shkuta, 25, who lived in occupied Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region, said he narrowly escaped arrest several times before reaching Ukrainian-controlled territory in 2023. He recalled being on a bus that was stopped by Russian soldiers.
“It was horrific. Men and women were asked to strip to the waist to see if they had Ukrainian tattoos,” said Shkuta, who now lives in Estonia. “I turned white with fear, wondering if I’d cleared everything on my phone.”
He said his friends who stayed in Nova Kakhovka report that life has worsened, with suspected Ukrainian sympathizers stopped in the street or facing surprise inspections at their homes.
“Today, my friends complain that life there has become impossible,” he said.
Russia established a “vast network of secret and official detention centers where tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians” are held indefinitely without charge, said Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Center for Civil Liberties.
“Everyone knows that if you end up in the basement, your life is worth nothing,” she said.
Russian officials have refused to comment on past allegations by U.N. human rights officials that it tortures civilians and prisoners of war.
About 16,000 civilians have been detained illegally, but that number could be much higher because many are held incommunicado, said Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.
A U.N. report released last summer indicated that between July 2024 and June 2025, its representatives spoke to 57 civilians detained in the occupied regions, with 52 reporting severe beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, degradation, and threats of violence.
One particularly notable case is that of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, 27, who disappeared in 2023 while reporting near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and later died in Russian custody. When her body was returned to Ukraine in 2025, it showed signs of torture, with some organs reported missing, according to a prosecutor.
“Russia uses terror in the occupied territories to physically eliminate active individuals in certain professions: teachers, children’s writers, musicians, mayors, journalists, and environmentalists. It also intimidates the passive majority,” Matviichuk stated.
Destruction in Mariupol
At the start of the war, Russian forces besieged Mariupol before the port city fell in May 2022. The Russian bombing of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater on March 16 of that year killed close to 600 people in and around the building, an AP investigation found, marking the deadliest known attack against civilians during the war.
Most of the city’s population of about a half-million fled, but many sought refuge in basements, a former actor recounted, who huddled for months with his parents and nearly perished due to Russian bombing.
The former actor, now in Estonia, chose to remain anonymous to protect his 76-year-old parents, still in Mariupol. They had to take Russian citizenship to access medical care and receive a one-time payment of $1,300 per person as compensation for their destroyed home, he said.
As in other occupied cities, Russification is actively taking place in Mariupol, with changes to street names, the use of Moscow-approved curricula in schools, reliance on Russian phone and TV networks, and adjustments to the city’s time zone.
“But even today, the threat of death has not waned. Only those who have Russian passports can survive,” the former actor noted, adding that his parents have asked him not to send postcards in Ukrainian due to potential dangers.
Putin “openly states that there is no Ukrainian language, no Ukrainian culture, no Ukrainian nation. And in the occupied territories, these words are manifesting in a chilling way,” Matviichuk remarked.
However, not everyone opposes the Russian takeover in Mariupol. The former actor mentioned that half of his former troupe now supports the Kremlin and believes Kyiv “provoked the war.”
Housing issues are palpable in Mariupol, where the population has dwindled to about half of its pre-2022 numbers. New apartment complexes have emerged from the ruins, but they are often sold to Russian newcomers rather than allocated to those who lost their homes.
Some residents who lost their homes have appealed directly to Putin. “You said we ‘don’t abandon our own.’ Do we not count as your own?” one resident asked at a notable rally.
At least 12,191 apartments in Mariupol have been designated as “ownerless” and slated for expropriation in the first half of 2025, with thousands more facing similar fates elsewhere.
Moscow is incentivizing Russian citizens to relocate to occupied regions by offering various benefits. Teachers, doctors, and cultural employees are promised salary supplements if they commit to residing there for five years.
Crumbling infrastructure and a shortage of doctors
Years of war and neglect have burdened many occupied cities in eastern Ukraine with grave issues regarding heat, electricity, and water supply.
The northeastern city of Sievierodonetsk endured significant destruction before succumbing to Russian forces in June 2022. Once home to 140,000 residents, only about 45,000 remain, primarily elderly or disabled.
Only one ambulance crew serves the entire city, and healthcare professionals rotate in from Russian locales such as Perm to staff its hospital, according to a 67-year-old former engineer who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Nonetheless, she expresses support for “the significant work Putin is doing,” as her roots lie in the former Soviet Union.
In Alchevsk, a city in the Luhansk region, over half of the homes have gone without heat for two harsh months. Five warming stations have been established, yet utility companies report that over 60% of municipal heating networks are in disrepair due to a lack of funding.
Even a pro-Moscow politician, Oleg Tsaryov, has criticized authorities for leaving “an entire city” in the cold. He pointed out on social media that Ukrainian authorities had intervened to assist when the heating system failed in 2006, but after the Russian takeover, similar failures were allowed to recur.
In the Donetsk region, water trucks fill barrels outside apartment blocks — but these often freeze solid in winter, according to a resident who chose to remain anonymous out of concern for repercussions.
“There’s constant squabbling over water,” she reported, noting that the lines to obtain this precious resource are “insane,” and those who are away at work frequently miss the trucks’ arrival.
Residents of Donetsk have appealed for Putin to step in to address what has become “a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe.”
Putin acknowledged last year the difficulties faced by residents of the four regions, stating, “I know how difficult it is now for the residents of the liberated cities and towns. There are many truly pressing, urgent problems.” He specifically mentioned the need for reliable water supplies and access to health care, among other concerns, announcing a “large-scale socioeconomic development program” for the regions.
Meanwhile, Inna Vnukova is building a new life in Estonia: She and Oleksii now have a 1-year-old daughter, Alisa. Their son is now 20.
Only about 150 people — including the couple’s parents — remain in the village that once was home to 800, Vnukova said, adding that she would like to show her daughter the family’s native Luhansk region someday.
“We’ve been dreaming of returning for four years, but we increasingly wonder — what will we see there?” she asked.
Key Takeaways
- Inna Vnukova and her family fled eastern Ukraine due to the harrowing circumstances of war.
- Life in regions under Russian control remains tough, with ongoing struggles for basic necessities.
- Russian citizenship and culture are being imposed on residents of occupied territories.
- Fear prevails among those who remain in these areas, with many facing accusations of disloyalty.
- Reports of severe human rights abuses continue, with multiple civilians detained and tortured.
- Infrastructure remains crumbling, with inadequate healthcare and essential services in occupied cities.
- Vnukova’s family is trying to rebuild their life in Estonia while grappling with memories of their past.
FAQ
What motivated Inna Vnukova to flee her village?
Inna and her family fled due to the constant threat from Russian soldiers and the harrowing conditions in their village, ultimately deciding that their safety was paramount.
How is life in the occupied regions of Ukraine?
Life in these regions is difficult, with ongoing challenges including housing issues, lack of access to healthcare, and fear of repression from occupying forces.
Are there reports of human rights violations in these areas?
Yes, numerous reports indicate systemic abuse, including unlawful detentions and torture of individuals accused of opposing the occupation.
What is the state of infrastructure in occupied cities?
Infrastructure is severely degraded, with many cities battling shortages of essential services like heat, electricity, and clean water.
