BBCA Ukrainian official told the BBC they hoped New Year’s prisoner talks with Russia would take place “any day,” although plans could fall through at the last minute.
Petro Yatsenko, from Ukraine’s Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said talks with Moscow about a prisoner exchange have become more difficult in recent months since Russian forces began to advance.
There were 10 exchanges in 2024, the lowest number since the full-scale attack began. Ukraine does not publish the numbers of prisoners of war held by Russia, but the total is thought to be more than 8,000.
Russia has made significant gains on the battlefield this year, leading to fears that the number of Ukrainian hostages is rising.
One of those brought home in the last exchange, in September 2024, is the Ukrainian submarine Andriy Turas. In an apartment in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, Andriy and his wife Lena told me a remarkable story of their ordeal. Both were captured while defending the city of Mariupol in 2022.
Lena, a military doctor, says of her Russian captors: “They lectured us about how Ukraine never existed. “They tried to erase our Ukrainian identity from our heads.”
Lena was released after two weeks of captivity. But the psychological scars of what he experienced at the Russian PoW center remain. “We have been hearing people crying, we know the men [in our unit] they were tortured,” he said.
“They beat us mercilessly, with fists, sticks, hammers, anything they could find,” Andriy said. “They stripped us naked in the cold and forced us to crawl on the tarmac. Our legs were torn, and we were left terrified and cold.”
“The food was horrible – sour cabbage and rotten fish heads. It’s just a nightmare,” said the sea. “It’s like waking up from a nightmare in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, scared.”
Andriy’s imprisonment lasted longer than his wife’s – two and a half years.
When he was released from a prisoner exchange three months ago Andriy met his two-year-old son, Leon, for the first time. When the couple was captured by Russian forces, Lena did not know what to expect.
“When I found out I was pregnant, I just cried, first with joy, but also with sadness, because I couldn’t tell my husband.”
“I always wrote letters to her, telling her that she would finally have the child she wanted for a long time,” said Lena, her eyes sparkling. “But he didn’t get a single letter.”
I ask Andriy what it was like to meet his son for the first time. “I thought I was the happiest person in the world,” he said with a smile.
Although the BBC cannot independently verify everything Lena and Andriy told us, their accounts are supported by international organizations, which have interviewed hundreds of Ukrainian PoWs.
The UN says Russia is subjecting Ukrainian prisoners to “widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment … including severe beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, confinement, prolonged stress, excessive exercise, sleep deprivation, mock executions, threats of violence and humiliation.”
In a statement sent to the BBC, the Russian Embassy in London said: “The allegations you described are false. The captured Ukrainian soldiers are treated humanely and in full compliance with the provisions of the relevant Russian law and the Geneva Convention. They are provided with quality food, accommodation, medical assistance, religious and psychological nutrition .”
Andriy is being treated at a medical center in Lviv. But he still has time to enjoy the holidays with his wife and son. It’s the Turas family’s first Christmas together, and the best gift for little Leon is having Dad at home.
But many Ukrainians are still eagerly awaiting news of their loved ones. In central Kyiv, relatives and activists are gathering for a special Christmas protest to call for the release of Ukrainian prisoners.
They stood for hours in the freezing cold, standing on one of the main roads of the capital, as passing motorists honked their horns in deafening solidarity.
“We hope for a Christmas miracle,” said Tetiana, whose 24-year-old son Artem was kidnapped almost three years ago, “the release of my son is my deepest desire. I have thought of our meeting a hundred times, when he and I hugged each other, and the eyes he has blossomed and is finally in his home country.”
And in the protest, holding a red placard, 29-year-old Liliya Ivashchyk, a ballet dancer at the Kyiv National Operetta Theater. Russian soldiers kidnapped her boyfriend Bohdan in 2022. He hasn’t contacted her since then.
“I can say that it is difficult for me to be alone, but I don’t want to say that, because I always think about how you are doing over there,” said Liliya.
Backstage, Liliya shows us the messages she still sends Bohdan almost every day – pictures of little hearts. “I miss him so much. He needs to be saved and given back his freedom,” he said, his lower lip quivering. Messages not read.
Liliya invites us to watch her perform in a special way on Christmas Day. The dance is a festive favorite in Ukraine: The Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss, written in 1866 to inspire Austrian society after the war. The theater is packed.
“The Christmas holidays are a sad time,” he said as he prepared to go on stage. “There’s really no festive atmosphere.”
As the show ends, the actors rush to get their coats. After almost three years of war, almost everyone here has a loved one fighting on the front lines, imprisoned, or killed in action.
“Many people in Ukraine are facing difficult situations,” said Liliya. “We are waiting for the time when we will be able to celebrate together again. We must remember to thank our army that we have holidays at all.”
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