Ukrainian Returnees Face Complex Needs
Judicial and human rights institutions integrate support for returning detainees into ongoing war crimes justice processes.
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Ukrainian Returnees Face Complex Needs
Judicial and human rights institutions integrate support for returning detainees into ongoing war crimes justice processes.
V, 30, used to work as a bartender in a Georgian restaurant in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Conscripted in 2023, he began his service as a grenadier, but within months was captured by Russian forces.
He spent the next year-and-a-half being transferred between three different prisons in Russia. Everywhere, V was tortured and abused.
“The further you go from the Ukrainian border, the worse the treatment gets,” he told IWPR. “The Siberians are the most brutal. The last place I was held was Kamyshin in the Volgograd region... The conditions there were horrific. Young men and women were just wasting away from tuberculosis. The most they gave them were pills like Analgin and some strange ointment. It was no help at all.”
He now experiences sudden flashbacks he says are psychologically difficult to endure.
“Sometimes I’ll be standing in the shower and the memories can come flooding back,” he said, recalling how during his time in captivity, he was constantly beaten, humiliated, stripped naked and fed very poorly.
“We had a taboo on talking about food. I came to understand the Holodomor survivors [the man-made famine of the 1930s] – why they treated bread so preciously. Hunger changes a person... We had arguments over food, even fights,” he recalled.
“These events take a heavy psychological toll,” V said. All he wants to do now is get back to his normal life, start a new business, see his friends. He told investigators everything that had happened to him while in detention, but has no interest in pursuing any judicial processes.
Ukrainian institutions face complex challenges in catering for the needs of returning detainees, while at the same time integrating their evidence into war crimes justice processes.
According to an OSCE report citing estimates from the Centre for Human Rights in Armed Conflicts (CHRAC), as of September 1 of this year, at least 13,300 Ukrainian soldiers had been held in Russian captivity since the full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022.
Of these, at least 169 were killed or died in captivity, while approximately 6,800 POWs have been released in exchanges and at least 22 returned to Ukraine through other means. More than 6,300 remain in captivity.
Separately, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported this summer that it has opened over 450 criminal investigations into the torture and mistreatment of Ukrainian POWs.
Veronika Plotnikova, head of the Coordination Centre for the Support of Victims and Witnesses at Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office, said that Russia routinely subjected POWs and civilian hostages to severe physical and psychological abuse.
Although launched in January 2024 as part of the prosecutor’s office, Plotnikova noted that her organisation’s aim was not the documentation of war crimes.
“Our priority is the individual’s needs, although in the vast majority of cases, they do tell us everything that happened to them in captivity,” she continued. “We inform them of their rights upon returning to Ukraine, such as the option to give testimony to investigators, etc. It might seem like common knowledge, but someone who has been in captivity for two, three or more years is often completely unaware of these things. You have to explain it in simple terms and even repeat it several times.”
Olena Bieliachkova, a coordinator for the Media Initiative for Human Rights who works with families of POWs and the missing, noted that Ukrainian authorities debriefed returning POWs to gather information on their conditions in captivity, particularly the Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWs and any evidence of war crimes. She said that almost all reported torture and abuse.
“Criminal proceedings are opened under Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine, which includes, among other things, the cruel treatment of POWs and other violations of the laws and customs of war,” she explains. “These cases are handled by the Security Service of Ukraine.”
During the reintegration process at healthcare facilities, released prisoners undergo medical examinations and receive medical care. In this time, certificates are issued to document bodily injuries resulting from torture and abuse. However, Bieliachkova added, these documents alone are not enough to hold the perpetrators accountable.
“A causal link must be established between a person’s time in captivity and the torture, injuries or health deterioration they sustained there,” Bieliachkova explained. “This can be confirmed by a forensic medical examination conducted as part of a criminal investigation. Such an examination establishes all the necessary components: the harm inflicted, the criminal acts, the consequences and the causal link.
“But this is not the only relevant evidence for prosecuting violations of international humanitarian law. The consequences of torture and abuse sustained in captivity can also be documented using the Istanbul Protocol. Unfortunately, in practice, it is not used systematically.”
REACHING OUT
The Coordination Centre for the Support of Victims and Witnesses now employs 58 staff members across both its main office and regional prosecution departments. Nearly all work directly with victims.
“The coordinators get referrals from prosecutors in cases involving former POWs,” Plotnikova explained. “They also visit the medical facilities where these individuals are taken for examination and treatment immediately after their release. The coordinators share their contact information and explain their work, and from there, word spreads among the former POWs themselves.”
Key needs range from assistance with the paperwork required to access social benefits and services to healthcare and social reintegration, as well as help with the formal process of being discharged from military service and vocational training for new career paths. Then there is the long-term psychological care that so many returnees require.
“After a needs assessment, the coordinator works with the individual to develop a support plan. This is one of the steps in helping them regain control of their lives and creating a predictable path forward,” notes Plotnikova. “We then collaborate with our partners to find opportunities for assistance. At the same time, we assess each person’s ability to manage things on their own, because our priority is always to give people the tools to help themselves.”
Plotnikova said that Ukrainian institutions were under no illusion that the reintegration and rehabilitation process would be short-lived.
“Last year, my colleagues and I were in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I attended a trial for a war crime committed 30 years ago,” she continued. “A dedicated victim support service was working with the witnesses and survivors. Imagine: so many years after the event, people still need that kind of support.”
