Ukrainian medic who filmed war horrors freed

Tallinn, June 18

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A Ukrainian medic whose footage was smuggled out of the besieged city of Mariupol was freed by Russian forces on Friday, three months after she was taken captive on the streets of the city.

The medic, Yuliia Paievska, is known in Ukraine as Taira, a nickname she chose in the World of Warcraft video game. Using a body camera, she recorded 256 gigabytes of her team’s efforts over two weeks to save the wounded, including both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers.

Taira and a colleague were taken prisoner by Russian forces on March 16, the same day a Russian airstrike hit a theater in the city center, killing around 600 people, according to media probe.

“It was such a great sense of relief. Those sound like such ordinary words, and I don’t even know what to say,” her husband, Vadim Puzanov, said. He added that the couple had spoken with each other over phone and Taira was en route to a Kyiv hospital. — AP