‘If we are not heard now, we will be heard later”: relatives of prisoners and missing persons held a rally in Kyiv
In Kyiv, an action was held on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in support of missing servicemen and those who are in captivity. The event gathered hundreds of people, and there was not enough space on the square, so some of the participants were forced to stand on the nearby streets, informs hromadske
The daughter of one of the missing servicemen, Victoria, noted that the main goal of the action is to prevent society from forgetting about their relatives who disappeared or were captured. She emphasized that such events help draw attention to the problem.
Victoria said that 25 people are missing in the 1st Special Forces Brigade, where her father served, but the state does not provide relatives with information about their fate.
“They disappeared on September 28 and October 1, 2022. That means that for three days the boys went into battle and disappeared. Unfortunately, we do not have any information today.”she shared.
Another participant of the action, Vitaly, whose brother disappeared on June 11, 2024, also stated that he does not receive any information from the military unit about his whereabouts.
“We believe, we hope, that the brother is alive. Maybe he is in captivity. He will return home. We want to get the authorities to hear us, because if they don’t hear us now, they will hear us a little later.”, — said Vitaly, who himself has 20 years of military experience.
“I don’t understand what to expect. Let me return either my son or my body. Let me return something. […] I want to have a grave, at least in this life”, – stated
Maria, the mother of a missing serviceman from the 68th brigade.
The wife of another serviceman Oleksandr told about the strange circumstances of her husband’s disappearance on June 29, after he had been training at the training ground for three days.
“The report of the investigation is simply ridiculous. […] It says that a brother saw him fall from a kamikaze drone. When they had an evacuation the next day, for some reason they took my husband from the pit and dragged him under a tree. And when they started looking for the body , then the bodies have not been found”, she shared.
Tatiana, the mother of serviceman Ivan Zubchenko, who disappeared in the summer of 2023, said that she learned about her son’s injury only from his brothers, and no search operations are still being conducted.
“Nothing. We are just waiting for Russia, through the Red Cross, to let us know that our children are in captivity.” – say the relatives of other missing soldiers.
