Today marks the beginning of a new school year for both of you. As it begins, I want you to know that my deepest and most enduring wish throughout all these years has been to be by your side, to support you, to provide for your every need, to see you be beautifully dressed, and to help make all your dreams come true.
Sadly, life has not allowed me to be there with you, to guide you, to cheer you on, and to watch your beautiful potential bloom like the rose in the photograph. That absence is the deepest sorrow of my life.
My cherished Anthoula and Alexandra, today also brings a new chapter: new teachers and new friends. I pray with all my heart that both of you will be surrounded by kind souls and teachers who see the brilliance in you, who nurture your talents and help you grow, because you deserve nothing less.
Thank you, my sweet Anthoula, for holding onto the hope that we will be reunited someday, before Papa leaves this world. Forgive me, my child, but Papa is not a Superman. Unlike you, Papa is not so optimistic. These eight long years without you and Alexandra have slowly broken me.
Deep down, I know that I will never again hold you both in my arms, never show you in person the boundless love that still burns fiercely in my heart.
But know this, always and forever: Papa has never stopped loving Alexandra and you, Anthoula. That love is eternal, untouched by time, distance, or circumstance. No one can ever take it away from me, or from you.
That is why I feel deep pain and sadness when Alexandra avoids speaking to me during the few rare times I’ve been able to reach you. I hope Alexandra will tell me the reason before it’s too late.
For eight years, I have not been allowed to speak with either of you. And during the very few times I was allowed, your mother acted as an interpreter because of the language barrier that was deliberately created between us. Now, both of you speak only Russian and a little English.
I would like to understand why Alexandra is upset with me, why she avoids speaking to me, because I love her deeply, and I want to meet both her and you, Anthoula.
Amendment – 2025.09.04
On the 29th of July, my birthday, something happened that shook me to my core. Since my daughter was abducted in 2017, I have lived without them. In all these years, I have not received a single phone call, letter, or postcard from my daughters, not on my birthday, not at Christmas, not at Easter, not once. They were not even allowed to remember me, their father.
The purpose of this forced silence has always been clear: to sever and ultimately destroy the bond between a child and the parent who has been erased.
But this year, something unprecedented occurred. My ex-partner called to say that my daughters wanted to wish me a happy birthday. In eight long years, nothing like this had ever happened. The following day, on the 30th of July, she wrote in a Viber message that she had asked them to make the call and claimed to have sent a parcel containing photos and letters from Anthie and Alexandra, as described in her message.
Gesture of Kindness with Chilling Indifference
I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. Her words cut through me like a blade, an insult disguised as a gesture of kindness. It felt like a slap in the face. A violation. To say such a thing, knowing full well that the silence was manufactured, reveals a chilling indifference to a parent’s pain and suffering.
It took everything in me not to break in that moment. I asked whether it had truly taken eight years to inform our children that their father was born on July 29. I even forced a joke and said, “Better late than never,” while inside, I was bleeding.
Today is the 4th of September, and I have still not received the parcel with the letters and photos from my daughters that she allegedly sent more than a month ago…………………. (!?).
EN 
RU 
UA 
SK 
IT 
EL 
SV