Journalist Anhar Kochneva, abducted by Syrian militants in October last year, fled from captivity and is already on her way to Damascus. This was reported by the ex-husband of the correspondent Dmitry Petrov.
“Anhar phoned just two hours ago. She hadn’t reached Damascus yet, the connection was very bad, so she didn’t have time to tell anything in more detail, only asked to call her mother,” he told Ytra. Meanwhile, on Kochneva’s page in LiveJournal, a message appeared: “We didn’t wait? Your Alice returned from the mirror. Details later.”
The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine confirmed the information about the release of Kochneva, noting that she had already contacted the Ukrainian diplomats and on Tuesday they are waiting for her at the Ukrainian Embassy in Syria. The details of his escape, the journalist later told RIA "News".
“I was a prisoner of the Chief of the Military Council of the SSA region of the southern suburbs of Homs, I ran away this morning around 6 in the morning, I was kept in one of the southern suburbs of Homs - Bueyda,” said Ankhar Kochneva. ), but I understood where they clap their ears and was able to escape ... I was taking a very terrible risk, I was walking through fields that could end in minefields. "
"In the beginning, the first 40 days I was treated more or less, and then they began to offend me ... It was bad, they (the kidnappers) themselves live poorly, and I lived even worse than they ... I will now be treated for a long time and very expensively unfortunately, "she added.
Ukrainian citizen Ankhar Kochneva spent more than five months in a Syrian captivity. A journalist who collaborated with many Russian publications, including Ytrom, was kidnapped on October 12 in the vicinity of the city of Al-Quseir, not far from Homs. After some time, a video message was posted on the Internet by Kochneva, in which she asked the Ukrainian and Russian embassies, as well as the Syrian government to comply with the demands of the kidnappers, but the demands themselves were not voiced then.
On November 28, the second video message stolen appeared on the Web. “My name is Kochneva Ankhar Vladimirovna, a citizen of Ukraine, 1972 year of birth,” she said in Arabic. “She came to Syria in January 2012 as a journalist. officers. Participated in the battles of Baba Amr and Zabadani. She was a translator for the Russian officer Petro Petrov, the Syrian officers Essam Zahreddin and Ali Hizam. "
In the end, Ankhar again asked the Russian and Ukrainian governments to fulfill the demands of the militants, whose content in the video message was not disclosed again. As it became known to journalists, shortly before the appearance of the second video, Kochneva’s mother was allegedly called by her captors and demanded a ransom of $ 50 million.
In early December, the Syrian rebels said they would execute Ankhar Kochnev if they did not receive a ransom. The ultimatum was signed by the leaders of the Free Syrian Army, Abu Jandal and Farid Abu Hussein. The term of the ultimatum put forward by the militants expired on December 16.
Two days after the hour of X, the commander of the rebel group Abu Jandal said in an interview that the abductors would give the Ukrainian authorities a “second chance” on the condition that their position was heard. He denied that the rebels demanded $ 50 million from the authorities.
"This girl stayed with us for a long time, because no one answered our appeals when we asked what they could offer us to be released. No one answered, no one seemed to be engaged," said Jendahl.