Tetiana Tipakova, an activist, was developing her tourism business in the resort town of Berdyansk. After the city was occupied on February 27, she became one of the organizers of pro-Ukrainian rallies. Due to her stance, she faced persecution, was kidnapped, tortured, and forced to record a confession video. After they got what they wanted, she was released. Tetiana provided testimony to the Association’s documenters and shared her story.
After the occupation of Berdyansk, Tetiana organized rallies daily. The number of participants grew each time and by March reached five thousand. They recited poems, sang the Ukrainian national anthem, and marched with the blue and yellow flag. Activists tried to push the occupiers out of the city center. Footage of these freedom marches spread worldwide, and Berdiansk's resistance became an example for other occupied settlements.
Tetiana was joined by three more men in organizing the rallies. The first to be kidnapped was Vitalii Shevchenko, a veteran who defended Donetsk Airport. On March 17, another activist, Volodymyr Sushko, was detained. Sensing she was being watched, Tetiana became more cautious. To somehow protect herself, she changed hats: she would wear a bright one to the rally and then switch to a dark one.
However, this did not help. On March 20, after a rally, Tetiana was captured. Russian military personnel put a bag over her head and took her to the 77th colony. There, she was held for two days, interrogated, and beaten on the face, head, arms, and knees.
"When I was detained, I realized that the Russians knew a lot of personal information that could only have been provided by the closest people. They spoke to me like I was trash, shouting. They said that there is no such thing as a Ukrainian nation, that we are just bad Russians," says Tetiana.
The interrogations began immediately. They spoke not with a Moscow accent, but one typical of rural Russia, which later turned out to be from Tver. Between interrogations, Tetiana was kept in a cramped, unheated solitary cell, where she was only allowed to stand or sit on a metal bed without a mattress. She was given food in a plate that others from different cells had used. Once, a soldier entered Tetiana's cell, ordered her to strip to the waist, and turn around repeatedly. This lasted for 20 minutes. Additionally, Chechen and Buryat soldiers came to her, attempting to rape her. As a result, when she was offered painkillers after another beating, Tetiana refused. She did not know what substances they might give her or how they would affect her, and she needed to stay conscious at night to defend herself.
She was beaten to stop the protests. The occupiers wanted her to record a video stating that resistance was futile and that Russia came with peaceful intentions. They tortured her with electric shocks and a gas mask—putting it on and cutting off the air supply. They called it "the little elephant is coming to you now." The electric shocks felt like her head was exploding and flying away, then coming back, but she couldn't feel it and would pass out, yet no one would help her up.
"I couldn't endure it anymore and realized that I would be more useful alive than rotting there. I recorded the video, and on March 21, I was released. The Russians released the video almost immediately because they needed to stop people from protesting."
On March 22, the same three soldiers who had previously tortured her came to Tetiana's home. Her daughter had posted on social media that Tetiana had been released. Because of this, Tetiana was detained for another three days, during which she endured the same treatment as before: torture, beatings, and pressure to record another confession video.
"They said I needed to redo the video because I wasn't smiling in the first one. You're scared when the doors open because you know they're coming to beat you. A soldier came in and said, 'Tetiana, come out.' I didn't believe they were releasing me. He said that now we would re-record the video and then take me home. They also set a condition: the next day, between 10:00 and 11:00, I had to come to the city council with documents to receive instructions on my further actions," Tetiana says.
When Tetiana was brought home, she and her daughter quickly started packing, and in the morning, right after the curfew ended, they left Berdyansk. The next day, they were already in Zaporizhzhia.
Currently, Tetiana Tipakova heads the public organization "Ridna Stezhka," which helps displaced people from Berdiansk with humanitarian aid, medicine, legal, and psychological support. The organization has opened an educational space for children, where they can learn English and computer science for free. It also helps collect evidence of war crimes, including sexual violence by Russian soldiers.
This publication was prepared with the financial support of the Czech organization People in Need, as part of the SOS Ukraine initiative. The content of the publication does not necessarily reflect their views.
