Returning Civilians from Russian Captivity: A National Priority

In Kyiv, during the media marathon “The Full-Scale Invasion: 10 Years of Russian Aggression in Ukraine. The Path to Justice”, the issue of returning Ukrainian civilians from Russian captivity was highlighted. Participants emphasized that this effort should be a top priority for the Ukrainian government, alongside the exchange of military prisoners.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, only about 150 civilians have been freed, while over 1,500 remain in captivity. Among those imprisoned are not only officials but also ordinary citizens, many of whom endure torture in Russian prisons. The discussion also focused on the plight of deported Ukrainian children, who are subjected to forced Russification and militarization in violation of international law.
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In Kyiv, during the media marathon Vladyslav Havrylov, a historian and researcher at the Where Are Our People? project of the PR Army NGO, recalled that at least eight million people were deported from the occupied territories of Ukraine. Among this number of deportees are hundreds of thousands of children, of whom only 15,546 have been identified and only 388 have been returned.‘

The situation with deported children is especially difficult now, because when Russians deport children, they immediately try to Russify them, militarise them, involve them in various paramilitary organisations in order to turn them against Ukraine, to raise them against Ukraine. That is why it is necessary to return these people and these children as soon as possible,’ the expert stressed. According to him, the return of civilian prisoners of war should be given the same priority by the state as the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

‘We need to develop an international legal mechanism for the return of Ukrainian civilians. Russia needs pressure from the entire international community to return our people. We can only imagine the number of captured Ukrainians and how long it will take us to return them if the world does not put more pressure on the Russian Federation and call for the return of our citizens home,’ the historian concluded.

Watch the full discussion here