The families of Ukraine are the lost fear will not bring them home

Tatyana Popovytch had contacted every agency you could think of. She had gone at every step that her son, Vladislav, could take after the Russians opened fire on his car, leaving him to flee a bullet in his leg. She had looked at mass graves, and reviewed pictures of the dead, watched the operations. A month later, she did not know more than when she started.

Then he called a strange person.

Serhii was just released from a Russian prison in Corsak. In Morning Roll Call, the prisoners were unable to see each other, but they could hear everyone mentioning his full name and home village. He said that Seerhai kept the largest possible number of names and places – 10 in total – and on May 9, 2022, Tatiana called for saying that he heard the voice of her son.

Like Vladislav, a civilian was captured by Boch at the beginning of the war, when hundreds of civilians were transferred from this region. Vladislav was 29 at that time. Now 32, he is still in prison in Kursk. Serhii could not explain to Tatyana why he was released and Vladislav was not. Tatiana was only happy to hear that her son was alive. She said: “I felt overwhelmed, I lost the capacity that I had since it was transferred,” she said.

Three years later, until today, Tatiana was sitting in a café in Boch, not far from the place whose son was kidnapped, and looked at the little evidence that he was still alive: two letters of it – short texts, written in the Russian language, he told her that he was well nourished and intended well. Each letter took about three months to reach Tatiana, making it difficult for her to feel the extreme connection to her son at any time.

She said with a painful expression of one of the parents who cannot protect his child. She looked at the pictures of Vlad Dance Hall – a hobby of an early age. “He is very weak,” she said. “I am concerned that he will lose his mind there.”

According to the Ukrainian authorities, approximately 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are still in captivity in Russian prisons after being kidnapped by the invading army – they do not count more than 20,000 Ukrainian children who have been transferred to Russia.

There are now increasing concerns among thousands of loved ones, amid clear progress towards peace talks, from forgetting or lost in this process. These fears seem to be justified.

Under the Geneva Agreement, there is a recognized mechanism for the exchange of war prisoners, but there is no such mechanism for the return of civilians who have been arrested, leaving even senior Ukrainian and international officials looking for an explanation about how to bring them home.

“When he brought official meetings, in the office of the Secretary of Grievances, or anywhere else, no one talked about the restoration of civilians in the event of a ceasefire,” said Yulia Hibron, 23, who was kidnapped early in the war from West Kiev village.

In the weeks that followed the families of her father’s families, Yulia used Facebook to contact another daughter of Ukrainian imprisoned and the couple launched a new organization for the campaign to issue all civilians.

The group met with representatives of the United Nations, the European Parliament and the governments of many European Union countries and the American embassy in Ukraine.

“We have talked to them, but it has reached the fact that they are frankly do not understand what will happen,” said Yulia.

“The only thing they said is that Trump is interested in the question of children who have been deported and that civilians may somehow be proportional to this category. But they are actually different categories that cannot be combined.”

It is worrying to the Awlia and other relatives of the civilians, senior Ukrainian officials do not pretend to have a stronger idea.

“I do not see the real and effective approach to restoring civilian detainees to Ukraine,” said Dmytro Lubinets, the country’s human rights secretary in the country. “We have no legal basis or mechanisms to return it,” he said.

What is more complicated by the problem is that Russia settled criminal charges against some of those arrested during the invasion.

“When you see these charges, it is often” measures against a special military operation. “” Can you imagine the opening of an investigation against Ukrainian civilians just to resist the Russian invading army, on Ukrainian soil? “

In May, Russia launched 120 civilian detainees as part of a greater swap of war prisoners, and exchanges are expected to increase. However, the numbers are still small, compared to the tens of thousands that were said to have been seized – adults and children. The great uncertainty remains on the road towards a negotiating peace.

“You want to believe that he will return home, at the same time you cannot believe it,” said Petro Serida, 61, a bus driver from Airbin, near Kiev, whose son Artem was captured more than three years ago. “It is very difficult.”

Petro and his wife live in shipping temporary accommodations similar to the containers in IRPIN, because their house was destroyed in the invasion. Until three years, every time the Petro phone rings it may be artym.

“It is one to have a message that says he is alive, but to hear his voice … that will be the joy that is really alive.”

Families like this live, in desperate hope. The dream is to see their loved ones again. It is not a direct dream, though – some fear that Russian families have caused permanent damage.

“It is the language that my son is exposed to,” said Tatiana, who kidnapped her son, Vladislav, in the dance hall of Bakha.

There is also a question that is missing. During the detention of Vladislav, his father died unexpectedly in just 50 years, carrying a well that he was unable to protect his son.

All that Tatyana can do is mentally readiness for the return of Vladislav. She expected that she would “feel with all possible feelings.” “That’s all I think. All the time, every day.”

Daria Metok contributed to this report. Pictures of Joel Gunter