Ukrainians hope for a New Year exchange of prisoners with Russia

A Ukrainian official told the BBC they hoped a New Year’s prisoner swap with Russia would happen “any day”, although arrangements could fall apart at the last minute.

Petro Yatsenko of Ukraine’s Prisoner of War Office said talks with Moscow on a prisoner exchange have become more difficult in recent months as Russian troops have begun to make significant advances on the front lines.

There were only 10 exchanges in 2024, the lowest number since the full-scale invasion began. Ukraine has not published the number of prisoners of war held in Russia, but it is believed that there are more than 8,000 of them in total.

Russia has made significant gains on the battlefield this year, raising fears that the number of captured Ukrainians is growing.

One of those returned home during the last exchange in September 2024 is Ukrainian marine Andriy Turas. In an apartment in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, Andrei and his wife Lena tell me a wonderful story of their ordeal. Both of them were captured during the defense of the city of Mariupol in 2022.

“We were lectured about the fact that Ukraine never existed,” says combat medic Lena about her Russian prisoners. “They tried to destroy our Ukrainian identity in our minds.”

Lena was released after two weeks of captivity. But the psychological scars of what she experienced in a Russian military institution remained. “We kept hearing screams, we knew the men (in our unit) were being tortured,” she says.

“They beat us mercilessly, with fists, sticks, hammers, whatever they could get their hands on,” Andrey says. “They stripped us naked in the cold and made us crawl on the asphalt. Our legs were torn, we were left terrified and freezing.”

“The food was terrible – sauerkraut and spoiled fish heads. It’s just a nightmare,” says the Marine. “It’s like waking up from a bad dream in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, terrified.”

Andrei’s imprisonment lasted much longer than his wife’s – two and a half years.

After leaving the prisoner exchange three months ago, Andrei met his two-year-old son Leon for the first time. When the couple was captured by Russian troops, Lena didn’t know what to expect.

“When I found out I was pregnant, I just cried, first of all from happiness and then from sadness, because I couldn’t tell my husband.”

“I kept writing him letters, telling him that he would finally have the child he had wanted for so long,” says Lena, her eyes shining. – But he did not receive a single letter.

I ask Andrei how he felt meeting his son for the first time. “I thought I was the luckiest man in the world,” he says, smiling.

Although the BBC cannot independently verify everything that Lena and Andrei told us, their reports are corroborated by international organizations that have interviewed hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The UN alleges that Russia subjects Ukrainian prisoners to “widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment… including severe beatings, electric shocks, sexual assault, strangulation, prolonged stress positions, forced excessive exercise, sleep deprivation, mock executions, threats violence and humiliation”. “

In a statement to the BBC, the Russian Embassy in London said: “The accusations you have described are patently false. Captured Ukrainian militants are treated humanely and in full accordance with the provisions of the relevant Russian legislation and the Geneva Convention. with quality food, housing, medical care, religious and intellectual nutrition.”

Andrey is undergoing rehabilitation in a medical institution in Lviv. But he still manages to rest with his wife and son. This is the first Christmas together in the Turasov family, and the best gift for little Leon is a dad at home.

But many Ukrainians are still desperately waiting for news from their loved ones. In the center of Kyiv, relatives and activists are gathering for a special Christmas demonstration to call for the release of Ukrainian prisoners.

They stand for hours in the bitter cold on one of the capital’s main streets, while passing motorists honk their horns in a deafening cacophony of solidarity.

“We are hoping for a Christmas miracle,” says Tatsiana, whose 24-year-old son Artem was captured almost three years ago, “my son’s release is my deepest desire.” I imagined 100 times our meeting, when we are hugging. each other, and the eyes light up, and he is finally on his native land.”

Liliya Ivashchyk, a 29-year-old ballet dancer of the Kyiv National Operetta Theater, was also at the protest with a red placard. Russian troops captured her boyfriend Bohdan in 2022. Since then she has had no contact with him.

“I can say that it’s hard for me to be alone, but I don’t want to say it, because I constantly think about how he is there,” says Lilia.

Behind the scenes of the theater, Lilia shows us the messages that she still sends to Bohdan almost every day – drawings of hearts. “I miss him a lot. He needs to be saved and given back his freedom,” she says, her lower lip quivering. Messages are unread.

Lilia invites us to watch her performance in a special Christmas performance. This dance is a holiday favorite in Ukraine: Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz, written in 1866 to lift the spirits of post-war Austrian audiences. The theater is full.

“The Christmas holidays are a painful time,” she says as she prepares to go on stage. – There is really no festive mood.

When the show ends, theatergoers hurry to collect their coats. After almost three years of war, almost everyone here has a loved one who is fighting on the front lines, captured or killed in action.

“Many people in Ukraine face difficult situations,” says Lilia. “We’re just looking forward to when we can celebrate together again. We have to remember to thank our military for having holidays at all.”