Especially in the first months of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, there were many reports of the treatment of Ukrainian soldiers in Russian captivity. Released people repeatedly spoke about torture and ill-treatment. The US magazine “The Economist” wanted to see how the Ukrainians treat their prisoners – but what is interesting about the report is what they now think about the war.
The journalists visited a facility in Lviv, the exact location of which cannot be given for security reasons. Those arriving here are likely to be eligible for a prisoner exchange, the report said, unless war crimes by the individual are discovered.
However, some prisoners are asking the Ukrainian authorities to postpone their exchange until after their military contract ends, so that they are not forced to fight again. Although in one case or another that means remaining in Ukrainian captivity until the end of the war, unless they join the Russian anti-Putin militia, which is backed by Ukraine.
The writer Petro Yatsenko, who is the spokesman for the Ukrainian coordination center for the treatment of prisoners, says that many of the Russian soldiers who were recruited for the war from Russian detention arrived in Lviv sick and weak. It’s hard to believe they could be used for anything other than cannon fodder.
However, according to Yatsenko, many of the prisoners continued to believe the Russian propaganda – that they would fight a war against supposed “Nazis”, the narrative of President Vladimir Putin, who used it to justify the invasion from the start. But at least some men, the Economist writes, wondered why they ended up there. “I think this war is in vain,” says prisoner Kiril.
