The last pocket of resistance, besieged by Russian forces, was the fact that for almost two and a half months, his son Artyom, one of the Ukrainian soldiers guarding the vast Azovstal factory in Mariupol, prayed that Irina Yorchenko would come out unscathed. On Wednesday, the news fell like a cleaver: Artem, 22, was dead. Irina, who was devastated, says she too is relieved – at least her son will not be captured by the Russians.
He did not know the famine or injury suffered by many of his comrades. “Suddenly I was relieved. It’s easier said than done, “he said.AFP By phone.
Artiom, an avid boxer, a burley-looking young man, had been digging in the steel industry since early March. He would have spent 74 days with the only means of communicating with Telegram and Instagram. “They were not allowed to call. Sometimes when I asked him if he was alive he wrote a +,” explains psychologist Irina Yekorchenko, who has a 20-year-old daughter and two foster children, aged nine and six.
Artem always told her he was fine, but she now realized that he was very honest with his friends. “Their days are numbered, and he wrote to them that they would not do it,” she said, her voice emotional.
“Music geek. Coffee lover. Devoted food scholar. Web buff. Passionate internet guru.”
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