On August 28, several hundred prisoners of war from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, who are in one of the many camps in Ukraine, recorded a video appeal to the Russian people and the illegitimate president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
Points of attention
- Hundreds of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine make a video appeal to Putin and the citizens of Russia, expressing their discontent with being held captive for years.
- The prisoners highlight the challenges faced in returning home due to Russian authorities blocking humanitarian exchanges and refusing to prioritize the return of wounded and sick prisoners of war.
- Civil society initiatives like the I want to live project support the prisoners in contacting their families and demand a faster repatriation process.
- The prisoners describe how they have become hostages of Russian politics, with key authorities prioritizing destabilizing Ukrainian society over ensuring the safe return of their own citizens.
Russian prisoners of war appealed to Putin and the citizens of the Russian Federation
Prisoner of war Mykola Dushko previously appealed to the Russians on behalf of the so-called units. "LDNR" in the spring as part of the "I want to live" project. Then, instead of a reaction, the Kremlin propagandists called them fake, actors, Ukrainian prisoners, and the so-called ombudsman of the Russian Federation, Moskalkova, simply ignored both the appeal itself and the lists given to her.
This time they were joined by several hundred other prisoners of war. All of them are second-rate prisoners of war for the Russian authorities: wounded, sick, elderly, mobilized, ordinary infantry who survived hell.
Russia returns them "for the rest" when there are still places left in the lists after Kadirov soldiers, prisoners, officers and prisoners from elite units such as the Air Force. In the 24.08 exchange, they were not returned at all, as Russia asked for conscripts who had been in captivity for only 2 weeks.
The "I want to live" project emphasized: "we do not manipulate prisoners of war, it is more important for us to return our own than to keep Russians."
But these prisoners of war became a pity, and they can be understood. They have been in captivity for the third year, and they are the last to be returned. In the camp, they have a television and the ability to call home regularly, so they are well aware of how the Russian authorities are "waiting" for them.
To the great misfortune of these men and their families, they became hostages of the politics of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the FSB and some deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, who behind the scenes decide who should be returned and who should remain in prison. For them, it is more important to try to destabilize Ukrainian society than to return their own. For two and a half years, people on both sides have been held captive solely because of a few Chekists and treasurers blocking initiatives to release prisoners of war.
They (the authorities of the Russian Federation — ed.) purposefully reject the great humanitarian exchange of all for all. They blocked the creation of mixed medical commissions, which allowed at least the return of the sick and wounded. They do not even give a chance to organize the collection of bodies on the front line with the support of the Red Cross.
I am sure they will ignore these poor people in the video as well. After all, they are far away in Ukraine, and their relatives, acquaintances and friends just sit and listen to lies from the screens for the third year, waiting for a miracle from heaven. They are not even the squeak of a mosquito, they do not exist at all.
The full video, in which the POWs who signed the appeal, say their names, can be viewed on the "I want to live" YouTube channel.
More than 40 million Russians are interested in the possibility of escaping from Russia
As Vitaly Matvienko, spokesman for the "I want to live" project, said, over 40,000 appeals have been registered for almost 2 years of the project's existence.
We have more than 300 successful operations that we can talk about now. And approximately 1,000 operations are in the hot stage, Matvienko noted.
In addition, the spokesman added that the website of the "I want to live" project has been visited more than 50 million times, of which approximately 48 million visits came from the territory of the Russian Federation.
Already 48 million citizens of the Russian Federation visited the website of the Ukrainian state initiative, because they do not want to participate in Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine.
