They stand in a circle on Mychailivska Square in Kyiv. Dozens of wives, mothers and daughters draw attention to the plight of their husbands, fathers and brothers, who fell into Russian hands as prisoners of war.

Slogans such as “Save my son” and “We demand the return of all prisoners of war” are on demonstration signs. In the background, Russian tanks shot down by the Ukrainian army, rusted war trophies.

Mother and daughter are wearing T-shirts, one yellow, the other blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, with a picture of their husband and father. He is an officer in the Azov regiment, which this spring defended the Mariupol Steel Works to the point of failure.

Badly treated and tortured

“I was recently in contact with an exchange soldier with whom he was imprisoned. But I have no contact with him myself,” says his wife Svitlana Solonska. “We had a very good relationship. I have a feeling he’s still alive.”

Her husband was seriously injured in the Olenivka prison camp. Under circumstances that have not yet been clarified, a barracks in which the soldiers of the Azov regiment were being held exploded at the end of July.

Svitlana was desperate. She wanted to look for her wife in the occupied territory, but daughter Sonja stopped her for fear of being orphaned. Her mother is convinced that “the Ukrainian prisoners of war are mistreated and tortured by the Russians”.

This is also what Larisa Charova from the organization Freedom for the Defenders says. The Russians tried to get her husband to sign a statement that he had executed civilians. He refused, Larisa knows, again with a soldier who was exchanged. “That’s why he was beaten and tortured. They were all beaten.”

Mother Svitlana demands that the warring factions release all prisoners of war. There are no official numbers on the numbers, both parties keep quiet about it. “Ten thousand Ukrainians,” says the woman in the blue shirt. There is no independent confirmation of this number. The International Red Cross also prefers not to comment on this, so as not to alienate the various parties. Spokesman Achilles Després grudgingly concedes that’s about the number that matters.

The women on the square are invariably angry at the cautious Red Cross. “This organization is capable of nothing,” says Charova. “‘What are you doing to get access to my husband?’ I asked. This is confidential information,” says Ksenia Pogorjelova, wife of a first-class soldier who fought at the steel mill. She can’t get over it.

Després from the Red Cross understands the frustration of families, but confidentiality and silence are Red Cross methods. “Our years of experience show that this is the most effective.”

That doesn’t change the fact that the young Swiss is also frustrated. He says that the warring parties hardly cooperate. “According to the Geneva Convention, we should have unrestricted access to the detention centers, but so far we have only been able to visit a few hundred prisoners of war.” He calls it “unacceptable”. “We continue to remind Russia and Ukraine of their legal obligations.”

Life pauses

Després also wants to comment on the prison conditions of the prisoners of war, neither on the Russian nor on the Ukrainian side. “We don’t want to make any comparisons, then the parties could accuse us of being biased. And we want to stay away from that.”

Charova, who threw a Ukrainian flag over her shoulder during the action, says the prisoners hardly get anything to eat. Photos of discharged emaciated Ukrainian soldiers confirm this picture. “A soldier weighed only forty kilos when he was released a month ago.” According to Larisa Charova, now all the detained members of the Azov regiment are sick. “If they don’t get released soon, there’s nothing left to release,” she expects as winter approaches.

The women agree that their life now is “hell,” as the phrase goes. “I’m really just thinking about what else I can do to get him out. With this thought I get up and go to bed.