“Important Stories” spoke with Irina Badanova, an expert of the coordination group of the support department of the General Staff of the AFU, about civilians in Russian captivity and the chances of bringing them home.

At the moment, the expert estimates the number of civilian prisoners of war to be at least 2 thousand hostages and divides them into 4 categories:

“First: those who served previously under contract, or drafted by age in the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation in the East of Ukraine). We know about two Ukrainians in the pre-trial detention center in Donetsk, who served in Shyrokyne, near Mariupol. Shyrokyne was not an area of combat operations at that time. Nevertheless, they are accused of opposing the Russian “SWO” and crimes against the people of Donbas. Those who had previously participated in the ATO have a much higher chance of being equated with servicemen and being released as part of the exchange.

The second category is more numerous: these are men who are not only not in the military, but who have never served. The third is women and young girls, such as the teacher from Chernihiv region, Viktoria Andrusha, who have nothing to do with combat operations. There is at least fragmentary confirmed data on prisoners from these three categories.

The fourth category is those about whom there is no information. They may have been killed in territories temporarily outside of Ukrainian control, in Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and other regions, or illegally captured and died after interrogation, torture and abuse in quasi-republics,  prisons, detention centers and prisons of the Russian Federation.

According to the General Staff, prisoners in Russia are held in very poor conditions, tortured with tasers during interrogations and constantly beaten. There are more people in the cells than there are places. Fourteen people can be held in a six-person cell. There is no medical care.

The full version of the interview with Irina Badanova is available at the link in Russian.