Ukrainians hope for a New Year prisoner exchange with Russia

A Ukrainian official has told the BBC that he hopes the New Year’s prisoner swap with Russia will take place “anyday,” although plans could collapse at the last minute.

Petro Yatsenko, of the Ukrainian Center for the Support of Prisoners of War, said negotiations with Moscow on the exchange of prisoners have been difficult in recent months since Russian troops began to make significant advances on the front lines.

There were only 10 changes in 2024, the lowest number since the invasion began. Ukraine does not publish the number of prisoners of war held by Russia, but it is believed to be more than 8,000.

Russia has made significant gains in the war this year, raising fears that the number of Ukrainians being captured is increasing.

One of those brought home in the last exchange, in September 2024, is Ukrainian sailor Andriy Turas. In the Ukrainian city of Lviv, Andriy and his wife Lena tell me an interesting story of their suffering. Both were captured while defending the city of Mariupol in 2022.

A Russian woman named Lena said: “They taught us about how Ukraine has never been. “They tried to destroy our Ukrainian history in our heads.”

Lena was released after two weeks in captivity. But the psychological scars of his experience in the Russian PoW environment remained. “We could hear people screaming, we know those people [in our unit] they were being tortured,” he says.

Andriy said: “They beat us mercilessly, with fists, sticks, hammers, anything they could find. “They stripped us because of the cold and forced us to crawl on the asphalt. Our legs were torn, and we were left with fear and cold.”

“The food was terrible – sour cabbage and rotten fish heads. It’s just a dream,” he says in the water. “It’s like waking up from a bad dream in the middle of the night, tired and sweaty, and scared.”

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

After his release from prison three months ago, Andriy met his two-year-old son, Leon, for the first time. When the family was captured by the Russian army, Lena did not know what to expect.

“When I found out I’m pregnant, I just cried, first with joy, but also with sadness, because I couldn’t tell my husband.”

“I kept writing letters to her, telling her that she would have the child she wanted for a long time,” says Lena, her eyes shining. “But they didn’t get a single letter.”

I ask Andriy what it feels like to meet his son for the first time. “I thought I was the happiest person in the world,” he says, laughing.

Although the BBC cannot verify everything that Lena and Andriy told us, their accounts are confirmed by international organizations, which have interviewed hundreds of Ukrainian PoWs.

The UN says Russia is subjecting Ukrainian prisoners to “widespread and chronic torture…”

In a statement to the BBC, the Russian Embassy in London said: “The allegations you have made are false. The captured Ukrainian terrorists are treated with mercy and in accordance with the provisions of Russian law and the Geneva Convention. This is provided. and good food.” , shelter, medical, religious and intellectual support.”

Andriy is being treated at a hospital in Lviv. But he still has time to enjoy the holidays with his wife and son. This is the Turas family’s first Christmas together, and the best gift for little Leon is to have Daddy at home.

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

They stand for hours in the freezing cold, lining one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, while passing motorists honk their horns in deafening cries of solidarity.

Tetiana, whose 24-year-old son, named Artem, was captured about three years ago, said: “We are waiting for a Christmas miracle, that the release of my son is my greatest wish. each other, and his eyes are shining and finally he is in his own country.”

Also at the demonstration, holding a red banner, is 29-year-old Liliya Ivashchyk, a dancer at the Kyiv National Operetta Theatre. The Russian army took her boyfriend Bohdan into captivity in 2022. She has not seen him since.

“I can say that it is difficult for me to be alone, but I don’t want to say that, because I always think about how he is doing there,” says Liliya.

Backstage, Liliya shows us the messages she still sends Bohdan almost every day – pictures of little hearts. “I miss him so much. He needs to be saved and get his freedom back,” she says, her bottom lip quivering. Messages have not been read.

Liliya is asking us to watch her play on a special Christmas Day. A favorite dance in Ukraine: Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz, written in 1866 to inspire the Austrians after the war. The theater is packed.

“The Christmas holiday is a bittersweet time,” he says, preparing to take the stage. “There is no real happiness.”

As the show ends, the actors rush to get their coats. After nearly three years of war, almost everyone here has a loved one fighting at the front, in captivity, or killed in action.

Liliya said: “Many people in Ukraine are facing problems. “We’re just looking forward to the time when we can celebrate together again. We must remember to thank our soldiers because we have every holiday.”