Russia seizes Ukrainian POWs, then it calls for favors from their family : NPR
Ukrainian prisoners of struggle return house on Aug. 19 after being held by Russia. There are proven right here in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv area. When Russia takes Ukrainians captive, it typically contacts the family of the prisoners and asks them to assist Russia, in keeping with Ukrainians.
Francisco Seco/AP
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Francisco Seco/AP
KYIV, Ukraine – Polina is a middle-aged girl from jap Ukraine who was devastated when Russian troops captured her hometown in 2022 and seized her ailing father, who’s blind in a single eye and walks with a cane.
Then got here one other gut-wrenching blow. Russian authorities contacted her on social media and demanded she help them to make sure that her father — who’s now 71 — was properly handled.
“They pressured me for 4 months. They wished me to assemble some details about one in every of their assaults,” stated Polina.
One other time, the Russians despatched her a video of her father.
“They stated, ‘Look, he is OK. He is smiling. And you have not achieved something for us but.’ They sort of pressured me, like, ‘It is time to do one thing,'” stated Polina, who fled her hometown and now lives in a northern a part of the nation that is nonetheless beneath Ukrainian management.
She did not assist the Russians, and so they finally stopped contacting her. However they accused her father of spying for Ukraine and have held him almost 4 years. Polina requested that we use solely her first title as a result of she fears for her father’s security.
Making the most of susceptible households
Russia is believed to be holding 1000’s of Ukrainian troopers and civilians as prisoners of struggle, in keeping with human rights teams and reporting from media retailers just like the Kyiv Impartial. And what occurred to Polina has occurred to many family of the prisoners, Ukrainians say.
“The households are in a really susceptible place. They’re making an attempt to study something about their family members in Russian captivity,” stated Petro Yatsenko, the Ukrainian authorities spokesman for the company that offers with Ukrainian households of prisoners held by Russia.
He stated Russia exploits this by withholding info in formal authorities channels. As an alternative, the Russians contact Ukrainian households straight.
“Russia by no means shares any official details about people who find themselves imprisoned,” stated Yatsenko.
He believes two Russian businesses, navy intelligence, or GRU, and the primary home safety company, the FSB, are operating this extremely orchestrated marketing campaign.
When the Russians seize a Ukrainian — a soldier or a civilian — they give the impression of being up the prisoner’s social media profile and start contacting relations, Yatsenko stated.
Russia typically tells the family to do issues like take a look at safety at key areas of their hometowns, or be part of demonstrations in opposition to Ukraine’s authorities.
Ukrainians maintain photographs of their lacking family as they watch freed Ukrainian troopers arrive after a POW trade with Russia within the Chernihiv area of nothern Ukraine on June 25, 2025. Russian officers typically contact the family of POWs and inform them to assist Russia by doing issues like protesting in opposition to Ukraine’s authorities.
Dan Bashakov/AP
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Dan Bashakov/AP
Steering for the households
Yatsenko stated most Ukrainians refuse and move on the knowledge to Ukrainian authorities. He affords a easy message to households on how to reply to the Russians.
“Our important recommendation may be very brief however very strict. Do not consider. Do not ask something. And do not be afraid,” he stated.
Russia and Ukraine periodically trade POWs. Practically 10,000 Ukrainian troops have been freed and an analogous variety of Russians have been launched, in keeping with each side.
Neither aspect says what number of prisoners are nonetheless being held. Whereas each side seize enemy troopers, solely Russia holds numerous civilians, and infrequently releases them.
Russia typically lets Ukrainian prisoners communicate to their households. However Yatsenko says they’re pressured to ship false messages that go like this: “Russia is treating me properly and they’re able to free us. However the Ukrainian authorities does nothing and that is why I am nonetheless right here. Please, mother or pricey spouse or sister, protest on the street.”
“In fact, this isn’t true,” he added.
Russian troops who had been captured by Ukraine sit in a bus in Belarus after being launched as a part of a prisoner trade on June 26. Ukraine and Russia have every launched round 10,000 POWs over the past 4 years of preventing, and are believed to nonetheless be holding giant numbers of prisoners.
AP/Russian Protection Ministry
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AP/Russian Protection Ministry
Widespread experiences of abuses
Many Ukrainian prisoners say upon their launch that they had been tortured in Russian captivity.
A 2024 report from the United Nations human rights workplace discovered that “Russian authorities have subjected Ukrainian POWs to widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment.”
The workplace stated almost the entire 174 Ukrainian POWs interviewed since March 2023 reported “torture or ill-treatment” that included “extreme beatings, electrical shocks, sexual violence, suffocation … and threats of extreme violence to the person or their household.”
The identical report discovered that 104 of 205 Russian POWs, or 51%, stated they had been abused “in the course of the preliminary levels of their captivity.” The report added that “almost all circumstances, torture and ill-treatment stopped when prisoners arrived at official locations of internment (in Ukraine), the place situations appeared typically compliant with worldwide requirements.”
Valentina Shcherbyna stated her 21-year-old son Mykola, a civilian, was seized by the Russians within the southern metropolis of Kherson in November 2022.
The Russians accused him of spying, she stated. This previous April, an unidentified Russian contacted Shcherbyna on social media and demanded $10,000.
“I used to be afraid to make issues worse for my son. I used to be actually scared and I did not know what to do,” she stated.
She contacted a Ukrainian policeman dealing with her son’s case. The policeman checked round and got here again with stunning information — excellent news.
Her son was about to be launched. Apparently the Russian contacting her was making an attempt to extort cash earlier than her son was freed.
Mykola is now house, one of many few civilians who’s been launched.
“He was crushed and after that they made him stand. His legs had been swollen. He stood for 21 days, resting solely at night time. He misplaced a number of weight. However his psychological state is OK,” Shcherbyna stated of her son.
In the meantime, Polina, whose 71-year-old father continues to be in captivity, fears for his well being. Every time the 2 sides commerce prisoners, she hopes he’ll be freed.
“With each trade, I am ready for him,” she stated.
Russia and Ukraine traded greater than 200 prisoners final month. Her father was not amongst them.
