The first rule is to forget your past life: Ukrainian marine tells of his three years of torment in Russian captivity

Dmytro Chorny and Diana Shikot. She sent hundreds of love letters but none reached him for two years as he was held as a prisoner of war. Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

Despite all they have endured, it doesn’t take much to draw shy smiles from Diana Shikot, 24, and Dmytro Chorny, 23.

You could ask them about Chorny’s sweetly bungled marriage proposal the day after his release from Russia’s notorious penitentiary system, in which he languished as a prisoner of war for three years.