“While you are waiting for Christmas — we are waiting for our loved ones to return from Russian captivity,” say the families of Ukrainian prisoners of war holding rallies to remember people held in Russian prisons and torture chambers.
Every week for years now, family members and friends of Ukrainian prisoners of war, as well as many other Ukrainians, keep organising rallies across Ukrainian cities to raise awareness about those who remain in Russian captivity without any news or updates about their loved ones.
“Captivity kills,” “While they are silenced, we scream for them,” “Every day in captivity can be the last one,” and “Fight for them the way they fought for us” — these are just some of the banners spotted at the weekly rallies.
Almost everyone here is expecting to see someone returned to them. Small children are waiting for their fathers, women are waiting for their husbands.
Mothers who haven’t heard from their children for months or even years, and grandparents like the ones who came to the most recent rally on Saturday with the banners “I am waiting for my for my grandson and his brothers in arms” and “I dream to live till the moment when my grandson is back home”.
Not-so-Merry Christmas
Many Ukrainian prisoners of war will be spending their third Christmas in Russian captivity, like Mariupol defenders who have become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance with their fierce defence of the Azovstal steel plant during three months of the full-scale invasion when the southern port city was under siege.
About 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered to Russia on the orders of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the siege of the massive steel plant in May of that year. More than 1,300 remain in Russian hands.
Representatives of the Association of Azovstal Defenders’ Families told Euronews they cannot think of a better Christmas present than to see their loved ones alive and back home.
“While children in Europe and America are dreaming of presents, thousands of Ukrainian children are dreaming of seeing their captive moms and dads at home,” the association’s spokesperson Marianna Khomeriki said.
The primary purpose of the weekly rallies is not to let the world forget that, she explained.
“Some of the children of captured Azovstal defenders were born after they were taken into captivity. Many mothers have not seen their sons for years and have not heard any news from them from captivity,” Khomeriki said.
“This is a tragedy that should not have happened in the modern world, and the world should remember it.”
Among Ukrainians, these are commonly shared sentiments. During the pre-Christmas rally in Kyiv, the mothers of Ukrainian POWs held the banners “My son has been kept in Russian captivity for 940 days. How much longer?” and “Help me bring back my son, it has been two years and half”.
No Christmas postcards
Many of the people at the rally haven’t even spoken to their loved ones since they were taken as prisoners of war. Often, they find out more about their well-being from those who return home after the prisoner swap.
According to the office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, nine out of 10 Ukrainian POWs are subjected to physical and psychological torture, sexual violence and illegal sentencing.
Some are executed before they are taken prisoners. Ukrainian prosecutors say during nearly three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as many as 177 confirmed cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war have been documented, 109 of which occurred this year.
And while the visual evidence of Russian troops killing Ukrainian soldiers keeps mounting, it is still difficult to prove such apparent war crimes to the international court, as retrieving bodies is mostly impossible.
Khomeriki said the families can only hope for further prisoner exchanges, but Russia is not showing much interest in getting its POWs back. She explained that the international organisations are not doing enough, and the families’ only hope is for Ukrainian forces to “replenish the exchange fund by capturing occupiers”.
The third Geneva Convention — one of four treaties in total — sets out specific rules for the treatment of prisoners of war, stating that they must be treated humanely, adequately housed, and provided with sufficient food, clothing, and medical care.
Humanitarian activities, including those of the International Red Cross (ICRC) or any other impartial humanitarian organisation that may be undertaken to protect and relieve prisoners of war, should not be hindered, according to the convention.
And although the ICRC says it has visited almost 3,500 prisoners of war both in Ukraine and Russia, it admits that “to date, the ICRC does not have full access to all POWs”.
Ukrainian soldiers who have returned from captivity and the families of those still in Russian prisons all say they have no contact and no information with those held in Russia, meaning they do not even know if they are alive.
Moscow is especially reluctant to exchange Mariupol defenders, and they were only exceptionally included in a recent prisoner swap in exchange for the Chechen Ramzan Kadyrov’s soldiers, captured since the beginning of the Kursk incursion in August.
“ According to public information from the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, we know that we receive requests from the Russian side only to exchange prisoners captured in the Kursk sector,” Khomeriki said.
“The so-called Russian authorities are not interested in captured Russians from other regions at all, which generally indicates their attitude towards their soldiers.”
All they want for Christmas
Weekly rallies across Ukraine are a constant reminder for Ukrainians and Europeans to “keep the issue alive and for the international organisations to feel the pressure of being held accountable for guaranteeing the POW’s safety in accordance with the Geneva Convention,” Khomeriki said, adding that they also provide moral support to the families waiting for the return of their beloved from captivity.
“Relatives and friends continue to believe that the defenders will return as soon as possible,” she explained.
“Most of all, relatives are concerned about the health of their loved ones and the consequences that will be caused to their physical and psychological health after captivity.
When asked what she would tell the Europeans celebrating Christmas and the end of the year holidays, Khomeriki says she wants them to remember “all Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages and to use all their leverage to secure their release.”
“These people were taken captive while defending Ukraine, on the territory of their own country, and Russia has no legal grounds to keep them hostage any longer,” Khomeriki pointed out.
“The world must influence this absurd situation, draw attention to the violation of the rights of our people, to the torture they are suffering at the hands of the Russians, and do everything to force Russia to return Ukrainian citizens to Ukraine.”
That is the only Christmas wish for the Ukrainians who are waiting for their loved ones to return.
