He was held captive for almost a month – Russian footage uploaded to the network shows him wrapped in one of Marina’s carpets.
During the battle for Vugledar, there was a moment when the Russian soldiers retreated and left Aleksey. He spent a total of 46 days in Marina’s house, and for most of that time he had almost no food or water.
Wounded, hungry and dehydrated, he was unable to leave the building.
“I was able to find crumbs on the floor,” he tells the BBC World Service from Kyiv.
“There was a piece of cracker that a mouse stole from me at night. I hid it, and then the mouse must have stolen it, because I didn’t find it.’
But hunger was nothing compared to thirst. Once, after the departure of the Russians, the desperate need for water almost killed Aleksey.
He was tearing panels off the sauna in the hope that there might be water in the pipes. He managed to break one open and drink the liquid inside, but it was antifreeze. Those few sips caused internal burns and were almost fatal.
Then, in March of the same year, when Ukrainian forces regained part of Ugledar and reached Sadova Street, another video from Marina’s house became popular. It shows ex-New Zealand soldier Kane Te Tai entering Number 17 and finding Alexey.
