In Mykolaiv, 200 people came out to support prisoners of war

On December 8, a weekly rally in support of prisoners of war and missing Ukrainian soldiers was held on Central Avenue in Mykolaiv. The event brought together relatives, friends and concerned citizens who held flags of the units and posters.

This was reported by Suspilne.

Valentyna, who came from the city of Pivdenoukrainsk, shared a story about her son, who went missing while performing a mission in Donetsk region on August 31, 2024. The woman is an organizer of similar events in her hometown, where relatives of the disappeared are also waiting for their loved ones to return.

Khrystyna from Mariupol told us how she learned about her brother's capture through Russian public media. Every week, she and her family take part in actions to remind the world that Ukrainian soldiers deserve to be released.

The woman also found her husband through a post on a Russian website, submitted his information to the SBU, and even recently received a letter from him.

Similar stories were told by other participants. In total, about 200 people took part in the event.

Recently, near Vuhledar, Donetsk region, Russians shot five captured Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers. They killed one of them in a forest belt, and took four to the road, where they were also shot.

In October-November, the prosecutor's office opened 13 cases of executions of 54 Ukrainian prisoners of war, which is one third of all such proceedings in 2024.

According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, at least 177 Ukrainian prisoners have died in Russian captivity since the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Due to the lack of international oversight, the actual number of deaths in Russian prisons is likely much higher.

The prisoner exchange that took place on the night of October 19 allowed 95 Ukrainian defenders to return home. This was the 58th prisoner exchange since the beginning of the invasion. The peculiarity of this exchange is that many Ukrainians are returning home who received so-called "sentences" from the aggressor country's judicial system and were "convicted": 28 to long sentences, and 20 to life imprisonment for defending their own land from the aggressor.

Анна Бальчінос