Ukrainians worry that POW exchanges with Russia will end

Ukrainians worry after plane crash that prisoner swaps with Russia will end

By HANNA ARHIROVA

Jan. 26, 2024 3:58 AM PT

KYIV, Ukraine — As Russia and Ukraine trade accusations over this week’s crash of a Russian military transport plane, which Moscow said carried dozens of Ukrainian POWs, families fear that future prisoner exchanges may be in danger and that their loved ones could remain imprisoned.

Even the basic facts of the crash are being disputed. Russian officials accused Kyiv of shooting down the plane Wednesday and claimed that 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were on board as they headed for a prisoner swap.

The Ukrainian side said it had no evidence of POWs aboard and that Russia was playing mind games. Kyiv did acknowledge, however, that a prisoner exchange had been due to take place Wednesday.

Neither side provided evidence for the accusations, leaving relatives with no answers. Many Ukrainians were distressed before the incident and had heard nothing from their captive loved ones for months.

Yevheniia Synelnyk’s brother has been in captivity for more than a year and a half. She cried Wednesday as conflicting items appeared on the news.

“You don’t understand which of these is true,” she said.

The next day, her exhaustion set in.

“There is no strength left to shed tears,” she said in a tired voice.

Synelnyk is a representative of the Assn. of Azovstal Defenders’ Families, which was created in June 2022, shortly after 2,500 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered to Russia on the orders of the president during the siege of the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol.

According to the association, around 1,500 fighters from the steel mill remain in captivity. Thousands more who were taken in other battles also are being held in Russia, Ukrainian officials said.

Synelnyk said relatives’ concerns are mounting as returning POWs speak of torture and abuse. Now, many families fear the exchanges will stop, she said.

Soldiers who have returned have shared with relatives any information they had about other captives. The last time Synelnyk heard anything about her brother was a year ago.

Families supported one another Wednesday.

“We’re together. We must stay strong, because we have no other choice,” Synelnyk said, emphasizing that they would keep organizing rallies. “As long as there is attention on these people, they are still alive there.”

One 21-year-old former POW, Illia, who didn’t provide his surname because of security concerns, attends the rallies weekly. He feels it’s the least he can do for those who remain in captivity. He vividly recalls his final day at the penal colony in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in Russia’s Rostov region. On Feb. 15, 2023, he heard his name being read aloud. He didn’t know he had been included in the exchange lists.

First, he and other POWs rode in a prisoner transport vehicle for three hours.Then he was blindfolded and transported by plane for about four hours. The plane made a stop to pick up more POWs whom he couldn’t see, but he understood what was happening as he heard the hands of the prisoners being taped. The trip finished with a four-hour bus ride to the meeting point.

“These are emotions that I cannot convey in words, but I will never be able to forget,” he said of the moment he realized he had been exchanged.

After his return, he went through rehabilitation, yet the echoes of 10 months of captivity linger. He recently started losing weight, and doctors cannot find the reason. He now weighs 97 pounds.

Illia thinks the plane crash puts future exchanges in danger, which would dash fervent hopes of freedom.

“It’s a dream of every prisoner of war,” Illia said.

Arhirova writes for the Associated Press