By Olha Hembik | 2025-05-22

WARSAW -- Blindfolded and dressed in military uniforms, protesters in Warsaw's Castle Square stood silently on May 17, holding up numerals that formed a haunting number: 70,000. That is how many Ukrainians are officially listed as prisoners of war (POWs) or missing, according to the activist group Euromaidan-Warsaw, though organizers say the true figure may be far higher.

Surrounded by flags, photographs and handwritten messages to the disappeared, relatives and friends of those detained by Russia gathered to send a clear message to Europe: do not look away.

The push to support prisoners of war will not end with the demonstration, Euromaidan-Warsaw leader Natalia Panchenko said. Activists will "speak out... though international channels," she promised, sharing the stories of Ukrainians held in captivity.

"We'll keep reminding everyone that these 70,000 are human beings. These are horrifying stories of pain, torture, abuse and violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law," Panchenko told Kontur. "The worst thing that could happen is stillness and silence."

Torture, hunger, murder

In a quiet protest, demonstrators handed out red apples, each bearing a QR code that linked to the personal stories of Ukrainian prisoners of war. The apples carried symbolic weight: a reference to Maksym Kolesnikov, a former POW who wept upon receiving the fruit after his release. Images of the freed Kolesnikov, emaciated and 10kg lighter after captivity in Russia, quickly went viral, showing the physical toll of his ordeal.

Among the names shared that day was that of National Guardsman Mykyta Shaulsky, known by his call sign "Shulya." Shaulsky was part of the initial defense of Mariupol at the outset of Russia's full-scale invasion. Captured in the early days of the war, he spent nearly three years in captivity before being returned to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange last December 30.

"The treatment was very bad. My nephew was in prisons in Olenivka, Horlivka and Torez. He lost 10kg," Shaulsky's aunt Natalia Hromska told Kontur.

She joined the protest in Warsaw carrying a Ukrainian flag, a photo of Shaulsky and a list of fellow members of his Guard unit, many of whom remain missing or imprisoned or are dead.

Shaulsky's 12-year-old brother, Maksym, participated in the protest, but it was through photos of himself. Tragedy struck before the brothers could reunite. Last September 21, Maksym and his 77-year-old grandmother Valentina were killed during a Russian ballistic missile strike on Kryvyi Rih.

"[The Russians] freed my mother and nephew of the burden of life," said Hromska bitterly.

The protest served as a platform to highlight broader concerns about the treatment of Ukrainian POWs. Detainees in Russian custody face systematic torture, starvation and denial of medical care and are frequently cut off from contact with international monitors, according to Panchenko. She cited findings from the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which reported that Russians have executed at least 79 Ukrainian POWs since late August.

Missing persons

"Ihor, we are waiting for you! We are fighting," reads the caption written on a portrait Panchenko was holding.

The photo showed Ihor Berezanets, a wrestling coach from Zinkiv, Poltava province. He was captured while serving in the Ukrainian military, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

"The Russians themselves posted a video of Ihor being detained. And that was it -- the family has heard nothing since," Panchenko said.

The protest aims to raise public awareness of these missing persons, so that their stories spread as widely as possible, she said.

Maria and Vasily Chernik, Ukrainian émigrés living in Łódź, Poland, traveled to Warsaw for the second year in a row to advocate for their missing son, Oleg. He disappeared during a combat mission near Berestove in December 2023.

"We were told that he died. There was heavy shelling at the time. But so many bodies have been returned, and his hasn't... The DNA doesn't match. I hope he's been captured," Maria told Kontur tearfully. "He has a daughter. I don't want to believe [he's gone]."

She was joined by Olga Smirnova, whose husband, Kyiv resident Kirill Smirnov, vanished while retrieving the wounded near Bakhmut.

"I've been waiting for my husband for two years, 10 months and 14 days. I know that he went to pick up the wounded and then disappeared. There's no information," she told Kontur.

Myroslava Vagjurak, an activist with Euromaidan-Warsaw, is searching for her father. She learned last Christmas Day that he had gone missing near Pokrovsk.

"I screamed that it was impossible. I had just spoken to him a day and a half earlier," she told Kontur. "I live in hope that my father is alive. He appeared in my dreams and said he was alive."

Addressing onlookers at the square, Vagjurak made a simple plea: "I will not stop fighting. Bring them home!"

'The world must know'

Protesters in Warsaw are urging European politicians and activists to take stronger action to secure the return of Ukrainian POWs and those missing in action.

Smirnova called for more decisive efforts, saying she expects leaders to "take more steps to ensure the return of all missing persons."

"The world must know what sacrifices we are making to protect it," Anna Veremchuk, one of the protesters, told Kontur.

Her brother Stanislav Solovey was killed in 2023 before he could meet his newborn son. The following year, her uncle Dmytro Yakovyak died in combat.

Before his enlistment after the full-scale invasion, he had been a volunteer since 2014 who helped deliver ammunition and food to troops.

Even though he had three children, a wife with disabilities and his own health problems, Yakovyak enlisted in the Ukrainian army because "he ... had a conscience and a responsibility to protect us," Veremchuk said.

Now, she is searching for another brother. Vasily Panasyuk disappeared near Maryinka two years ago.

Euromaidan-Warsaw activists say they will continue their demonstrations "as long as Ukrainians remain in Russian captivity."

Panchenko promised "to demand that politicians from all over the world put more pressure on Russia and to demand that the Russians immediately exchange everyone for everyone."

All war criminals will one day be held accountable, she hopes.