The 74-year-old man had been carrying out humanitarian work in the country for seven years. A trusted person had gone to the police station to request his release, which has happened faster than expected
The Valencian volunteer detained in Ukraine has been released after six days at a police station in the city of Kherson, in the south of the country. Only a few hours after a person sent by friends of this former official accessed the premises to check the state of health and negotiate with the Russian officials, the best news was confirmed.
In a few moments, this same person is on his way to pick up Mario García Calatayud from the police station to transfer him to a safe place so that he can recover after this ordeal that began on March 19.
At three in the afternoon Spanish time, four in Ukraine, a person close to Mario’s friends managed to access the police station and verify that this 74-year-old man was alive and in good health.
“In two or three days we can have good news,” said the businessman, Julio Suárez, who is one of the people who is very involved in the search for the former Valencian official. However, everything came to a head during the afternoon and shortly after they received the long-awaited call from those responsible for the police station notifying that Mario had been released.
There was great concern about the delicate situation in which this 74-year-old man found himself after his arrest on the street on March 19. And it is that from that moment nobody knew exactly his whereabouts or how he was being completely incommunicado.
Mario’s release is a great relief for his family and friends both in Spain and Ukraine who have been very concerned about this man at all times, the first Spaniard detained by Russian troops in this war.
Ukrainian friends explained that Mario’s arrest could have occurred because he was carrying documentation that could link him as a collaborator with the Ukrainian armed forces.
The friend who sounded the alarm about the arrest of this pensioner from Carlet also warned that more arrests could occur as the Russian military had lists of foreigners who collaborated with the Ukrainians. And Mario has been one of them. Before his arrest, he did not hesitate to stand before the Russian military to shout against the injustice that this people is experiencing.
Contacts between Spain and Ukraine
Julio Suárez is one of the people who is helping Mario and knows Ukraine very well since from 2012 to 2021 he was living in this country. This businessman runs an import and export company for Spanish products that has an office in this Eastern country. Now, from Spain, he is doing everything possible to free Mario, whom he met in 2017 as he was one of the few Spaniards who lived in this area.
Officially, the Spanish Embassy in kyiv, now located in exile in Poland, is also carrying out work to locate Mario García, but it has not transpired what progress has been made.
Mario, a civil servant in the Carlet City Council, took early retirement in 2014 when the Crimean crisis broke out and left to start a new life collaborating as a volunteer and facilitating the arrival of humanitarian aid. Eight years ago he was one of the few Spaniards who moved to the front since the conflict had begun in this area of the country.
The beginning of the Russian attacks at the end of February did not stop the work of this activist, who did not think at any time of returning to Spain despite the fact that his family asked him to do so so that he would not put himself in danger.
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