“I Have Been Looking for My Mother for Four Years”: The Story of 15-Year-Old Sasha from Mariupol Becomes Part of the Museum of Civilian Voices Founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation

Fifteen-year-old Oleksandr Radchuk from Mariupol has been waiting for the most important reunion of his life for almost four years. In the spring of 2022, at the filtration camp in Bezimenne, russian soldiers forcibly separated him from his mother, Snizhana. Under escort, she managed to shout only one thing: “I’ll come back!” Today, Sasha lives in the Chernihiv region and believes that one day he will embrace her again. His story has become part of the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.

Before the full-scale invasion, Sasha’s family — himself, his mother, his little sister, and his stepfather — lived in Mariupol. The boy vividly remembers the constant shelling and life without food, water, or electricity. During one of the attacks, the teenager showed extraordinary courage: he shielded his younger sister Viktoriia with his own body. He saved the girl, but he himself suffered a severe eye injury caused by shrapnel. Ukrainian doctors at the Illich Military Hospital  provided first aid, but without specialized equipment it was impossible to fully save his sight.

“At the moment, I see very poorly. Doctors say that if I had undergone surgery back then in Mariupol, I would be able to see with my left eye,” the young man says.

For more than two weeks, the family sheltered in a bunker at the steel plant and emerged only when Ukrainian soldiers were surrendering into captivity. The occupiers took Sasha and his mother to a filtration camp. There, they were separated: the boy was sent to Donetsk, while his mother disappeared without a trace.

It was Sasha’s grandmother, Liudmyla, who managed to bring her grandson back to Ukraine from occupied Donetsk. Today, they live in the Chernihiv region and have not lost hope of seeing the boy’s mother return. The family has submitted dozens of appeals to various authorities, believing that Snizhana may be held in captivity.

“I have been looking for my mother for four years now, but there has been no news about her. I believe my mother is alive — that is beyond question. I believe it. It cannot be otherwise,” Sasha says with conviction.

The young man has shared the story of his hardships and the horrors of war with world leaders in Davos, the United States, and the Netherlands. For his courage and bravery, Sasha received the “Future of Ukraine” award from the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Today, he and his grandmother are waiting more than anything else for his mother to return home and for peace to come.

“I still have hope that my daughter will be returned to Sasha and me. We have been everywhere. We go everywhere, tell our story, and ask for help — for help in stopping the aggressor and finally putting an end to this war,” shares grandmother Liudmyla.

Watch Sasha’s story here: https://bit.ly/4dREARN

The collection of the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation already numbers more than 145,000 stories about the war. This is the largest collection in the world of testimonies from civilians affected by russia’s war against Ukraine.