They didn't ask for a Russian passport, so they were killed

They were incredibly beautiful. Young and in love. Their lives were cut short for one reason alone, but cruelly: Anastasia and Valerii Saksahanskyi refused to serve the occupiers.

Three years ago, on the night leading into September 15, Russian occupiers broke into the young couple's home in Mali Kopany, Kherson region. Anastasia and Valerii were dragged away, while their two-year-old daughter, Margarita, was left alone in the house. The child was asleep that night and could not have known she would never see her parents again.

The next day, Anastasia's body was found twenty-five kilometers from their home. She had been shot several times, with the fatal shots to the head. Valerii's body was found later: it had been brutally mutilated, and his face bore a deep gash, a trace of the torture he had endured before his death. Their only "crime" was that they didn't want a Russian passport and refused to cooperate with the occupying authorities. They did not betray their homeland, did not bow their heads, and did not want to belong to those who had seized their land. For this, they were tortured and then killed in cold blood.

Anastasia worked as a nurse at the Kherson perinatal center. Her colleagues remember her as a kind, sincere and extremely good-hearted person. She smiled a lot, so they simply called her "sunshine." Valerii worked for the Kherson fish and water protection patrol service. He was a responsible man who loved his homeland and family more than anything. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the couple moved back with their daughter to their native village of Mali Kopany, but the Russian occupation caught up with them there too. Anastasia and Valerii never hid the fact that they were waiting for Ukraine, for the day when the Ukrainian flag would fly over the village once again. They knew where they belonged, and they would not let the occupiers force them to deny who they were.

Anastasia Saksahanska was twenty-five years old, Valerii Saksahanskyi was thirty-four. They were killed because they remained loyal to Ukraine. Today marks three years since they died. Let us remember Anastasia and Valerii, the young family that should still have been alive: raising a child, making plans, growing old together, and simply being happy. Russia left a two-year-old girl without a mother or father, and tortured and murdered two young people because they refused to bow their heads before the occupiers.

They could take their lives, but they could not make them renounce Ukraine. Let us remember them, and also the terrible price Ukrainian families pay when the Russian occupation breaks into their homes. Let us never forget those whom Russia killed because they held fast to their most basic right: to remain themselves, and to remain Ukrainian.