Ukrainian journalist to publish diary after being abducted in Syria

Ukrainian journalist and interpreter Ankhar Kochneva, who was abducted near the Syrian city of Homs in October 2012 and escaped after 153 days of custody, plans to publish a diary upon her arrival in Kiev next week. Appearing on air of the Arab-language version of the television channel Russia Today, she said she had planned her escape for quite a time. “I began to develop health problems. I lost more than 20 kilograms. Apart from that, I had eye problems,” she said. In her words, she was kept in a locality, from where rebels were shelling the Syrian army and the latter was striking back. “My chances were scarce: either to simply die or to be killed in exchange of fire or by bandits,” she stressed. She said she had ventured to go outside early in the morning when the gunmen were sleeping. “I thought, if I meet a person who will lend whatever credence to me, I will ask this person for help. Maybe, I will promise him or her some money to have me hidden until I get in touch, say, with the Ukrainian embassy or with my friends in Syria and a special operation is organized to save me,” she noted. Luckily, the people she had encountered helped her to reach a territory under control of regular troops. Kochneva told journalists in Damascus that she planned to arrive in Kiev in a week, and to visit Moscow. She plans to call a news conference and publish her diary highlighting her adventures in Syria. After receiving a passport in Kiev, she will go to Moscow, where her child is living. “I will continue my work. I must draw people’s attention to what is going on in Syria,” she emphasized.