Russian soldiers held as prisoners of war (POWs) in Ukraine have released a video appeal to President Vladimir Putin ahead of his annual televised call-in show scheduled for Dec. 19, asking why they have not been included in prisoner exchanges.
The video was published by Nash Vykhod (Our Way Out), a civic movement founded by Russian women in Ukraine.
In the footage, Russian servicemen captured in Ukraine said they hope Putin will address their fate during the event, traditionally presented as an opportunity for Russians to raise matters of public concern directly with the Kremlin leader.
In the appeal, the prisoners said thousands of Russian POWs are currently being held in Ukraine, including wounded soldiers, those under the age of 25, Muslims, fighters from Chechnya’s Akhmat units, and at least one serviceman who has been captured for a second time.
One of the prisoners, identified as Tkachuk, says that despite agreements allegedly reached during talks in Istanbul on June 2, not all eligible prisoners have been exchanged.
“At the moment, I am in a prisoner-of-war camp. There are thousands of people like us here. There are wounded soldiers here, and those under 25 years old, although the Istanbul agreements provided for an ‘all-for-all’ exchange in these two categories. Not everyone was exchanged,” he said in the video.
Another POW, Mansur Elmurzayev, added: “We are all waiting for Putin to exchange us. We have no patience left.”
Iryna Krykina, the leader of Nash Vykhod, said she hopes that Ukraine and Russia will eventually reach a peace agreement in which the first provision would be an exchange of prisoners of war on an “all for all” basis.
The Nash Vykhod movement was founded in late December 2023 by Russian women living in Ukraine. The group assists families of Russian soldiers missing in the war, helps locate captured servicemen, and facilitates the formal recognition of POW status in Russia, a step required for inclusion on official exchange lists.
In January 2024, Nash Vykhod signed a cooperation memorandum with Ukraine’s Khochu Nayti (I Want to Find) project. The partnership aims to speed up prisoner exchange procedures by ensuring that once a Russian soldier is officially recognized as a POW by Russian authorities, they can be added to exchange lists, allowing Ukraine to bring home its own captured servicemen and women.
For its activities, Nash Vykhod has been designated a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities.
In August, Kyiv Post visited a Ukrainian POW camp, where captured Russian and foreign fighters described life behind the fences, including their routines, work, meals and views on the war.