The situation with prisoners of war being held in Ukraine’s occupied Donbas is a tragedy. Some have been locked up for over two years, some tortured, and a few executed. Access to them by international missions is usually denied. Despairing families sometimes fall prey to swindlers seeking ransom. Since the war is officially undeclared, these soldiers and civilians don’t have POW status but are instead classified as “illegally held hostages.” The official hostage release process between Russian-backed separatists and Ukraine is “completely deadlocked,” mainly due to politicization. But Ukrainian volunteers, working separately from the Minsk process, continue to fervently negotiate for every hostage they can.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Vera Zimmerman: Patriot – working hard to bring home Ukrainian POWs
A picture taken on Oct. 12, 2014 shows the Kushugumske cemetery in the suburbs of Zaporizhia, south-eastern Ukraine, where the remains of unidentified Ukrainian soldiers killed in fighting against pro-Russia separatists are buried.
