First in assaults — last in exchanges: stories of UAF prisoners of war that will break your heart
Every weekend, peaceful rallies take place in Ukrainian cities, where relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war, both men and women, come out with calls to not forget that they are still in captivity. Most of the protesters are the families and friends of the Azov Brigade. In recent months, relatives of other Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades have also joined them.
Novyny.LIVE attended the rally and heard heart-wrenching stories.
Mobilized at 18: the story of a military man
The 19-year-old fighter with the callsign "Druh-malysh" from the 67th Mechanized Brigade has been at war for over a year. He volunteered for mobilization. He is originally from Kramatorsk, in the Donbas region. After the war began, his family relocated to Kyiv.
"I have a very ordinary story; I'm just an ordinary guy from Kramatorsk. I applied to the Prava Molod organization, and six months later, I decided to join the military. At first, I was in a rear unit, but then I moved to a combat unit. Honestly, I wasn't afraid to go to war; I'm glad to be part of all this," the young man said.
At the same time, he agrees that not all men are able to fight. However, he emphasizes that it's important for everyone to contribute to the fight against Russia in any way they can:
"This includes donations and participation in various actions in support of the army."
Went missing in April 2022
Valentyn Yaroshenko, a contract soldier from the 95th Separate Air Assault Brigade, went missing on April 17, 2022, near the city of Izium in the Kharkiv region. His sister Marianna attended the rally, holding a portrait of her brother. She says that he is from a brigade that is the first in assaults but the last in exchanges. This refers to the 95th Brigade's extensive combat experience.
"At first, we had the status of a prisoner of war for three months, then it was changed to "missing in action". To this day, we don't know what happened to him. There have been no DNA matches, so we hope and believe that he is alive. We saw a guy who looked like him in Russian captivity, and we are sure it's him. Moreover, no one has seen any of this happen. His comrades say that on April 17, he was pulling other guys out himself," the girl says.
Marianna recalls her last conversation with her brother on March 25, 2022.
"I asked him: Valik, why are you doing this? And he replied: Who, if not me, will stand up for you? Those were the last words I heard from him in person. We’re knocking on all doors, but no one is helping."
Taken to combat positions with pneumonia
Valentyn's comrade, Mykola Kolesnyk from the Zaporizhzhia region, also went missing in action, but in the direction of Toretsk on July 30, 2024. His sister Ksenia shares that this happened after just six days of working in that position.
"We still don’t know anything about them. Unfortunately, the brigade is not in contact with the families; they don't tell us anything about my brother at all. I last spoke with him half an hour before he left for the front lines. He was mobilized in April and didn't even finish his training before being sent to combat positions. And he had pneumonia, which he caught during training. I don’t understand how this could have happened at all," Ksenia added.
Journalists from the investigative project Nasha Sprava looked into why the fighters of the "Azov" brigade are not being exchanged. These men and women heroically defended Mariupol from the enemy and have been in captivity of the occupiers for over 800 days.
The commander of the Azov Brigade, Denys "Redis" Prokopenko, congratulated the personnel on October 14 — the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God and the Day of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. The commander addressed the fighters and highlighted the determination of the Azov members.