Russia seizes Ukrainian POWs, then it demands favors from their relatives

Ukrainian prisoners of war return home on Aug. 19 after being held by Russia. There are shown here in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region. When Russia takes Ukrainians captive, it often contacts the relatives of the prisoners and asks them to help Russia, according to Ukrainians. Francisco Seco/AP hide caption

KYIV, Ukraine - Polina is a middle-aged woman from eastern Ukraine who was devastated when Russian troops captured her hometown in 2022 and seized her ailing father, who's blind in one eye and walks with a cane.

Then came another gut-wrenching blow. Russian authorities contacted her on social media and demanded she assist them to ensure that her father — who's now 71 — was well treated.

"They pressured me for four months. They wanted me to gather some information about one of their attacks," said Polina.

"They said, 'Look, he's OK. He's smiling. And you haven't done anything for us yet.' They kind of pressured me, like, 'It's time to do something,'" said Polina, who fled her hometown and now lives in a northern part of the country that's still under Ukrainian control.

She didn't help the Russians, and they eventually stopped contacting her. But they accused her father of spying for Ukraine and have held him nearly four years. Polina asked that we use only her first name because she fears for her father's safety.

Russia is believed to be holding thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians as prisoners of war, according to human rights groups and reporting from media outlets like the Kyiv Independent . And what happened to Polina has happened to many relatives of the prisoners, Ukrainians say.

"The families are in a very vulnerable position. They are trying to learn anything about their loved ones in Russian captivity," said Petro Yatsenko, the Ukrainian government spokesman for the agency that deals with Ukrainian families of prisoners held by Russia.