POW Mothers from Russia and Ukraine are taking matters in their own hands
While the Ukrainian and Russian governments negotiate POW swaps, POW mothers on both sides of the war are helping each other locate prisoners and, to the best of their ability, ensure their wellbeing.
While the Ukrainian and Russian governments negotiate POW swaps, a parallel civilian work for the prisoners is going on behind the scenes. POW mothers on both sides of the war are helping each other locate prisoners and, to the best of their ability, ensure their wellbeing.
Once every several weeks, a Zoom conference takes place between the mothers of Ukrainian soldiers missing from the frontline and Russian soldiers imprisoned in Ukraine. Their conversations are about projects that might be mutually beneficial for their children. Currently, they are trying to increase the access of international organizations to Russian prisons where POWs are held. This will make it easier for prisoners to communicate with relatives on the other side of the frontline and ensure access to healthcare.
This bond of goodwill transcends politics. “We work under the understanding that all soldiers are someone’s children, so there is never any animosity between us,” explains Alla Makruch, who leads the initiative from the Ukrainian side. On the Russian side, her counterpart is Valentina Melnikova, director of the Union of Soldiers Mothers.
This cooperative is not new and was already successfully operating before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. In 2019, Ukrainian mothers collected and delivered aid to Russian POWs in Ukraine. “Russian soldiers later called and thanked us,” said Alla Makruch. “Of course official Moscow did not like it. They said, ‘Look! Ukraine is treating Russian POWs so badly that even mothers committees had to intervene.’”
But after February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded parts of Ukraine, the cooperative became much harder to operate. There are no more active mothers’ groups in Russia-controlled territories of Ukraine, and the majority of mothers in Russia are afraid of security services, that tightened its grip in the country.
Yet Ukrainian mothers are still pushing for initiatives to increase the wellbeing of Russian POWs. For example, with their help a new policy was approved by Ukraine that goes even further than the Geneva convention in ensuring the wellbeing of prisoners. Russian POWs are given free, 15-minute phone calls every day to talk to their families. Of course, Ukrainian mothers are hoping that this policy will gain some reciprocity from Russia, but so far, that has not happened.
There are still a few Russian mothers working to improve the treatment of Ukrainian POWs. Union of Soldiers Mothers director, Valentina Melnikova, has filed requests with Russian authorities for information about which governmental department is in charge of POWs. She is also putting pressure on Moscow to provide the International Red Cross with access to prisons in Russia.
Both leaders of the partnership have confirmed that the Russian side is much less active. Not only are Russian POW mothers much less organized, they are afraid. The latest initiative Ukrainian mothers have enacted was getting security services to allow Russian mothers to come to Ukraine to visit their loved ones in prison. But so far, no Russian mothers have made the trip.
Melnikova said Russian mothers could not come for other reasons. They were not able to negotiate for military safe passage across the frontline, so the mothers would have to travel through Europe, which is expensive and requires a visa. But Alla Makruch thinks it is more than that. She believes Russian mothers have been threatened and told not to participate in this initiative: “We talked to several mothers who seemed very positive and wanted to come. But the next time [we call], they just do not pick up the phone.”
Alona Verbytska, an advisor to President Zelensky on the rights of military members, is occasionally invited to the POW mothers Zoom conferences and also helps the Ukrainian mothers navigate government institutions. Speaking for the Ukrainian mothers, she said, “We are hoping that Russia will start taking active steps to increase the wellbeing of our POWs there. But even if they don’t, we will continue taking such steps on our side.”