KYIV — The final time Valentyna Tkachenko, a 35-year-old mom of two from Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, noticed her husband Serhii was simply earlier than Russia invaded her nation.
Serhii, a Nationwide Guard soldier, was captured on February 24 of final yr, the day Moscow launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine. His unit was guarding the Chernobyl nuclear energy plant when it was attacked by the Russians. When the Russian navy retreated from Chernobyl and the remainder of the Kyiv area on the finish of March, they took Serhii and 167 different POWs with them.
Since then, the wives of the captured troopers have solely heard from them as soon as — a brief handwritten be aware: “I’m alive, every thing is OK,” despatched greater than six months after they had been taken prisoner.
Like hundreds of different family of Ukrainian POWs, Tkachenko has contacted Ukrainian authorities and the Worldwide Committee of Purple Cross (ICRC) and had written 4 letters, however heard nothing again till November 29. That is the day she received a video name on the Viber messaging app.
“It was Serhii. We talked just for three minutes. I used to be not allowed to ask him questions. As quickly as I attempted, he shook his head and simply mentioned no. As a substitute, he saved saying: ‘Valya, go make issues onerous for Kyiv. Kyiv doesn’t wish to take us again,’” Tkachenko recalled. “Then he mentioned he was sorry and ended the decision, promising to name me again if he ever has an opportunity.”
Tkachenko did not go off to display towards the federal government, though household protests have taken place in Kyiv and different Ukrainian cities.
Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s coordinating workers on the therapy of prisoners of battle, advised POLITICO that different households have obtained comparable calls from troopers being held by the Russians.
“An individual has not heard from a relative for greater than a yr, and right here he calls and says that he’s alive. Russians are able to trade him, however Ukraine does nothing. Not too long ago these calls turned large. So, we understood that this can be a marketing campaign to trigger mistrust within the authorities,” Yatsenko mentioned.
It is a stark change in coverage from the primary yr of the battle, when the 2 sides recurrently exchanged prisoners. In all, 2,598 folks have returned from Russian captivity throughout 48 swaps, in accordance to the Ukrainian navy. Nevertheless, the final main trade was on August 7.
“It has actually slowed down on account of causes from the Russian Federation, however there are very particular causes for this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy advised a information convention in Kyiv this week.
Enjoying politics with POWs
The Russian refusal to trade POWs seems geared toward inflaming tensions in Ukrainian society, the place dissatisfaction with Zelenskyy is rising within the wake of this yr’s disappointing counteroffensive, and the temper is popping grim as essential assist for Ukraine stalls within the U.S. Senate and Hungary blocks the EU’s efforts to spice up civilian and navy assist for Kyiv.
Tkachenko thinks her household, in addition to different prisoners of battle, have grow to be instruments in a political recreation.
“They began so nicely, exchanging so many. However then abruptly all of it stopped. I believe Russians wish to discredit our authorities. Individuals are exhausted, and POWs’ family are dropping their mood. They wish to trigger havoc,” Tkachenko mentioned bitterly.
A lot of the Ukrainian POWs had been captured following the bloody siege of Mariupol, a coastal metropolis the place Ukrainian troops held out for 3 months of ferocious assaults earlier than surrendering the Azovstal Iron and Metal Works in Might 2022.
Anastasiia Bugera, 22, from the Kharkiv area in japanese Ukraine, has not spoken to her boyfriend, 24-year-old Kostyantyn Ivanov, since March 2022. She was in Russian-occupied Izyum when Ivanov was ordered to give up alongside a number of thousand different Azovstal defenders.
“I managed to name his mom from our neighbor’s out of doors bathroom sooner or later. She advised me he was making an attempt to name me and failed. I cried so onerous standing in that bathroom,” Bugera mentioned. The bathroom was the one place she might get a connection because the Russians had been making an attempt to dam cellular alerts. Izyum was liberated by the Ukrainians in September 2022.
“We have now not had the chance to even say hi there to one another. They had been promised to be in captivity just for three to 4 months. However Russia lied,” Bugera mentioned.
Ukraine has managed to trade only some dozen Azovstal defenders, together with the commanders of the Azov Regiment, however hundreds of standard troops, police and border guards captured in Mariupol are nonetheless being held. In response to the Azovstal households’ affiliation, Russia doesn’t wish to trade them. As a substitute, households sometimes see them on movies from Russian courts, malnourished, exhausted, and on trial accused of battle crimes. Russia continues to dam any direct communication with them.
Life in jail
As of as we speak, Russia holds greater than 3,000 Ukrainian troopers and a few 28,000 civilians, the Ukrainian ombudsman’s workplace and reintegration ministry mentioned. Nevertheless, the true quantity could also be even greater.
“For instance, a few of those that are in captivity haven’t been confirmed but. These individuals are nonetheless thought of ‘lacking’ though we now have info they could be in captivity,” Yatsenko mentioned.
The Ukrainians haven’t mentioned what number of Russians they maintain, however they’ve so many that they are constructing a second POW camp to carry them. Russians are additionally being held in a particular facility in western Ukraine and housed in cells in pretrial detention facilities.
“I might say throughout the counteroffensive Ukraine managed to extend the POWs trade fund that was already huge due to the stalled exchanges,” Yatsenko mentioned. “However we’re able to accommodate all Russian troops combating in Ukraine, in case they determine to give up.”
Ukraine says it’s treating its POWs in accordance with worldwide guidelines, however accuses Russia of mistreating its prisoners.
“Greater than 90 % of prisoners of battle whom we interview after their return say that they had been subjected to torture, deprivation of adequate diet and sleep,” Yatsenko mentioned. “Individuals are being pressured to burn out tattoos or to devour solely Russian propaganda. They aren’t allowed to speak with family.”
Russia insists it’s treating its POWs nicely.
Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova on November 30 visited 119 Ukrainian POWs and mentioned they had been being held in situations that correspond to worldwide requirements.
“Lots of them reported that they had been allowed to name their family by cellphone by the competent Russian authorities,” Moskalkova mentioned in a assertion printed a day after Tkachenko received the video name from her husband.
Moskalkova mentioned that preparations are being made along with her Ukrainian counterpart to permit for mutual visits.
The Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross visits POWs on each side of the entrance — to this point seeing 2,300 of them — however Russia hasn’t absolutely opened its services to outdoors inspection and the ICRC is institutionally restricted in its capability to criticize nations out of worry that its entry will likely be minimize off.
“We’re painfully conscious that there are POWs that we nonetheless haven’t visited, and for this reason we’re continuously working in direction of bettering our entry to the locations the place they’re held. We have now additionally delivered greater than 3,800 private messages between POWs and their family members, on high of facilitating the exchanges of over 9,300 letters from and to prisoners of battle,” mentioned Achille Després, the ICRC spokesperson in Ukraine.
He refused to disclose any details about the precise situations by which POWs are held.
“Our purpose is to work instantly with the detaining authorities, to affect in direction of the concrete enchancment of the interment situations and remind the related states of their authorized obligations, notably that POWs should always be handled humanely and their rights upheld, in addition to their integrity, dignity and privateness revered,” he mentioned.
Hoping for launch
With huge prisoner exchanges frozen, the one manner captured troopers could make it again to their very own aspect is in casual battlefield swaps between commanders.
“Sadly, such sporadic exchanges can’t substitute those on the state degree,” Yatsenko mentioned.
In his information convention, Zelenskyy mentioned he hopes to see a change of coverage that may permit for a resumption of prisoner exchanges.
“We are actually working to convey again a reasonably respectable variety of our guys. God prepared, we are going to succeed,” he mentioned.
Ukraine hopes to jar the Kremlin into restarting swaps due to the rising variety of Russian POWs it is holding.
“As quickly as we accumulate, for those who’ll forgive me the language, the suitable stockpile of enemy assets, we trade them for our Ukrainian defenders … I actually hope that our pathway will quickly be activated,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
