Ukrainian bloggers who interview Russian prisoners of war (PoWs) sometimes set up a call home for them, and almost all of the wives and mothers back in Russia respond to questions about the war by saying they are not interested in politics or do not know who started the conflict.
Such answers give an impression of loyalty to the Kremlin, but are driven by the well-founded fear of reprisals for anti-war statements as Moscow continues its work to conceal the disastrous human cost of its “special military operation.” The British SIS says there have been more than a million Russian casualties, with at least 250,000 dead. The number of missing and prisoners of war (PoW) is not known, but totals many thousands.
Russian social workers assigned to support PoW families are instructed to help spouses behave as “the ideal wife of a Russian soldier.” They should never question the “heroism” of their husbands and must promise to support their rehabilitation when they return. If necessary, they must bravely accept news of their death “in the name of the motherland.”
But the focus on propaganda rather than practical help means many are turning to Ukrainian projects as they search to find missing soldiers. The best-known is I Want to Find, which is run by the Kyiv government’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of PoWs, as a sign of Ukraine’s commitment to the principles of international humanitarian law.”
The program helps the relatives of Russian soldiers establish if their loved ones are in Ukrainian prison camps or have died in the fighting, and if their remains have been found and identified.
Our Way Out works alongside I Want to Find to help locate Russians in prison camps, facilitate contact for relatives, and obtain proof of status for Russian military registration and enlistment offices. This significantly increases the chances of detainees being recognized officially as POWs by Moscow and their inclusion on prisoner exchange lists.
But military families are under severe pressure to conform. Russian pro-war propagandists intimidate and instruct them not to contact Kyiv’s support projects or communicate with Ukrainians through social media or other online platforms.
Anastasia Kashevarova, a popular Z-blogger, claims, for example, that Ukraine deceives the relatives of Russian soldiers and exploits their hope of finding loved ones as a way of recruiting them as operatives. She falsely says activists such as Irina Krynina, a Ukrainian-based Russian who founded Our Way Out, ask Russians to pay for information, launch drones, or protest against the war in return for help.
Kashevarova tells her subscribers the Ukrainian groups “work for those who murder and torture Russian soldiers in the prison camps,” as well as “planting mines in children’s basements.” She is echoed by other pro-regime organizations, which give detailed instructions to the wives and mothers of PoWs on communicating with Ukraine.
Women’s Front, a Kremlin-supporting non-profit, claims the Ukrainian side will not agree to prisoner exchanges for families and that it wants to exploit them for propaganda.
But repercussions for speaking out are more likely to come from the Russian side, as Moscow excludes prisoners from exchange lists if relatives are deemed to have shown “ingratitude” to Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Despite the intimidation and risks of Kremlin-backed retribution, the I Want to Find project received nearly 128,000 requests from Russians between January 2024 and September 2025.
It is a risk worth taking because video of a Russian PoW, or confirmation of their remains, is often the only way to ensure Moscow will recognize their true status. Soldiers who go missing in combat are often accused of desertion; more than 25 military units have fraudulently reported soldiers as absent without leave, according to an investigation by the Important Stories website.
Russian authorities also notify families that soldiers are dead when they are being held in Ukraine, according to Our Way Out’s Krynina. Such reports can only be refuted by a video recording of a living prisoner or, in some cases, visits by PoWs’ wives to Ukraine.
The desire to find and return loved ones is stronger for tens of thousands of families than the fear of reprisals. Back in Russia, the wives of mobilized soldiers have created the Way Home movement as a result of their struggle for the return of their husbands from the front.
Not all of them have spoken out against the war, but many have openly protested against the authorities. While most of the relatives of Russian prisoners publicly follow the instructions they receive from propagandists, the fact that 128,000 have appealed to Ukrainian organizations speaks volumes about their lack of faith in the Kremlin.
The name of this CEPA contributor has been withheld to shield him/her from retribution by dictatorial and authoritarian states.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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