Relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war: The uncertainty causes despair

Relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war regularly gather in Kiev: but information about the whereabouts of their husbands, brothers or sons is sparse. The uncertainty causes women to despair.

The frustration is palpable in the packed visitor room of the coordination staff in Kiev: This consists, among other things, of representatives of the Ukrainian secret service, the army and the Ministry of Defense and is responsible for questions relating to Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians in Russian hands. On this day, around 20 women and a handful of men fixate the uniformed team that is supposed to answer your questions, and others join in online.

“Russia is not adhering to the Geneva Conventions and they are not negotiating, what happens now?” asks a woman with impatience in her voice. She and the others in the room are members of the 23rd Brigade and are pressing for information about their husbands, sons or brothers. “How do you negotiate with people who want to kill us?” replies one of the coordination staff team with a counter question. Negotiations on a prisoner exchange are very difficult and complicated, but they will not give up.

Halyna Balykyna, who traveled from the Kherson region by night train, also wants to find out if there might be something new. “Unfortunately not,” she says quietly. She comes regularly to the coordination staff in Kiev and has submitted all documents to the International Red Cross in Geneva, the Red Cross of Ukraine and the Secret Service of Ukraine SBU, she says. All she could do was wait, nothing more.

Torture, beatings, starvation and show trials

Her eldest son Alexei died at the age of 38 in the fighting for Mariupol, Halyna Balykina knows this from a call from his unit and she is now continuing to fight for his body – so that she can bury him. “You can only endure this with tablets. It’s not possible without tablets.”

Halyna Balykyna is an exhausted-looking woman with tired brown eyes. Even the tiniest hint about her two younger sons, Vitalyj and Andryj, would be a straw for her to cling to in her pain.

She fears the worst. Torture, hunger, beatings, mental torment, show trials and arbitrariness – Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians are exposed to all of this in Russian hands. This is comprehensively proven by statements from previously exchanged soldiers, documentation from Parliament’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets and the secret service. But non-governmental human rights organizations also list evidence – including the renowned “Center for Civil Liberties” run by Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matvichuk.

27 years Imprisonment sentence in mock trial

“I’m looking for my husband,” says Tetyana Lysjura, who is also hoping for information on the coordination staff that day. After the Russian attack on the port city of Mariupol, her husband Vitaliy fought at the Azov Valley plant. He was taken prisoner by Russia just a few weeks after Moscow’s major attack. She hasn’t heard from him directly since then.

Just this much: Apparently in September 2022, Vitalyj Lysjura was sentenced to 27 years in prison in a show trial for the murder of civilians – as it appears in Russian-occupied Donetsk. In a Russian propaganda Telegram video, he allegedly voluntarily admits that he did this on orders from the Azov Regiment. Russia particularly likes to use the reference to the supposedly right-wing extremist Azov Regiment for anti-Ukrainian propaganda.

Tetyana Lysjura has watched this torturous Russian video countless times and stares at her cell phone: “He’s missing his entire upper row of teeth. Vitaly lost 30 kilos in captivity.” She cannot find out whether the video was recorded before or after the mock hearing. But Ukrainian psychologists have clearly determined that it was recorded under duress.

Relatives are calling for more pressure on Russia

Relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian hands often publicly demand greater pressure for their release. Shortly before Christmas, hundreds of people gathered again on the central Maidan Square in Kiev. They hold up cardboard signs with names and blue and yellow flags with photos and the brigade of their sons or brothers and make speeches calling for more pressure on Moscow and help from countries like Germany. Many of the prisoners in question that day fell into Moscow’s hands while defending Mariupol, and hundreds were forced to surrender to the Russian side in May 2022 – on the orders of President and Commander-in-Chief Volodymyr Zelensky.

Sedatives and love

“Faith, hope and love. That’s what keeps us going,” shouts a group of mothers and wives. They would also worry what the children would think since they had no news of them. It would be more difficult for them because they would be exposed to Russian propaganda that would tell them that Ukraine had abandoned them and forgotten them. These women also say that they regularly take psychotropic drugs. “We take pills, we take sedatives because our nerves can’t take it.”

Ukrainian leadership should communicate better

Vitally Sustrity was captured as a volunteer in Mariupol more than 600 days ago and is believed to be in the Russian Republic of Mordovia, says his wife Iryna Samoilenko. She found out about this from a fellow prisoner who was released. He said that there was only 150 grams of bread a day and that her husband’s injured leg was not treated there, so it rotted. “I have only one wish for the new year, that the exchange process begins.”

The women repeatedly say that they feel abandoned – by the United Nations and the International Cross, which almost never have access to Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian captivity. But many are also disappointed with the responsible Ukrainian authorities. Some of the women say they were told they were a nuisance.

“Communication with relatives could be better,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyj admitted recently at his annual press conference. He would pass this on to Parliament’s human rights commissioner and the head of military intelligence.

2,600 Ukrainian Prisoners of war exchanged

According to the human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian parliament, around 2,600 soldiers have been exchanged since the major Russian attack. How many are in Russian captivity is not officially stated.

Many relatives regularly travel to Kiev, visit all the relevant authorities for a day or two and then travel back to the Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv regions or to Volovets in western Ukraine, where Tetyana Lysjura lives after escaping from the Russian-besieged Mariupol. She looks pale in her light blue wool sweater and has deep circles under her eyes. “You know what I’m most afraid of? That even when the war is over, the Russians still won’t give them up.”