Yulii Pylypei is a professional military man who first served in Mariupol in 2016. He commanded a mortar company in the 36th Marine Brigade and fought at the Illich Iron and Steel Works, defending the city and his country from Russia’s full-scale invasion.
On April 12, 2022, he and his brothers-in-arms were captured by Russian forces and he has been a prisoner of war (PoW) ever since.
“It was a Sunday morning, we had not had contact with Yulik for several days. I was with my mother and our friends from Bucha,” his sister Olha recalled. “I received a message from my brother’s wife — it was a screenshot with text written in Russian from Yulik’s account — ‘Your husband is with us, don’t worry, he will be home soon’.”
His family has not seen him for 26 months.
Pylypei has been moved multiple times, first to Olenivka, then to Taganrog, Bryansk, and Rostov. The last information his relatives received, from released prisoners of war at the beginning of 2024, was that he was in Kursk.
“What we know about the conditions is that they have food, but all dishes are prepared from spoiled products — rotten beets, cabbage, expired fish products,” his sister said. “According to one of the released PoWs, Yulik is one of the fighters for soap, toothbrushes, and towels, because Ukrainians in Russian captivity are constantly faced with a lack of such elementary things.”
Yulii Pylypei is one of more than 4,000 Ukrainian servicemen and women believed to remain in Russian captivity, but the true number is hard to verify.
Ukraine’s Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories reported in November that the number of military personnel in captivity exceeded 3,500, but Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence does not publish numbers. It’s sensitive information and negotiations over exchanges are continuous.
“Russia deliberately withholds information about both civilians and Ukrainian prisoners of war, violating the Geneva Convention, which requires notifying the Red Cross,” said Andrii Yusov, who works for Ukrainian intelligence and the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. “Russia denies access to detention sites for Ukrainian prisoners of war, preventing objective assessments of their conditions, including medical care, food, and their rights.”
Yusov said the Kremlin is also obstructing humanitarian work agreed with the Red Cross, including joint medical commissions. “All seriously wounded and ill people from both sides should be returned,” he said.
Ukrainian prisoners are being ill-treated and denied the humane treatment that is their right under international law, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said in its December 2023-February 2024 report, which featured interviews with 60 recently released Ukrainian PoWs.
“Almost every single one of the Ukrainian PoWs we interviewed described how Russian service persons or officials tortured them during their captivity, using repeated beatings, electric shocks, threats of execution, prolonged stress positions, and mock execution,” said Danielle Bell, head of mission for HRMMU. “Over half of them were subjected to sexual violence.”
Most of those interviewed spoke of the anguish of being denied communication with their families and being deprived of adequate food and medical attention, she said.
Thousands of Ukrainians are also being held in Russian-occupied territories without any legal formalities or court proceedings. They are often kept in unsuitable conditions simply because they are Ukrainians in areas captured by Russia.
Yusov said 1,690 civilians are confirmed to be in Russian captivity, though the actual number is likely to be higher. There are also 14,000 civilians officially listed as missing, though the Kremlin continues to deny the existence of civilian hostages and illegal detention.
“In some cases, they don’t admit they have this person or distort and deliberately speculate about their status,” he said. “They label an illegally detained civilian as a citizen of the Russian Federation and incriminate him for some of their crimes or simply detain him without explanation.”
While there have been 51 swaps of PoWs since the full-scale invasion, involving the return of 2,988 military personnel, it has only been possible to return 147 civilians. According to Yusov, there are no established mechanisms for non-military swaps.
“They should simply be released. If we wanted to talk about an exchange Ukraine would have to act as barbarically as our opponents by entering their territory and capturing civilians to swap,” he said. “Ukraine will not do this; we are a civilized state and follow the United Nations Charter.”
Activating universal jurisdiction would also greatly assist Ukraine, Yusov said. In April the first Russian torture case was filed in Argentina, which allows trials for international crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, wherever they occur. The international community can help bring criminals to justice for their crimes, he said.
He added that it would help if international organizations and the International Committee of the Red Cross could expand the range of tools they use to confirm that people are in captivity.
“We see propaganda photos and videos that clearly show citizens of Ukraine, both civilians and prisoners of war,” he said. “Russia does not formally confirm this and, accordingly, the Red Cross does not have official information.” The Red Cross should be more proactive, he said.
While it’s not known when all prisoners of war might be released or when an all-for-all exchange will occur, their families still hold onto the hope of one day seeing their loved ones again.
“I am convinced that planning his future after release gives him the strength to hold on,” Olha said of her brother Yulii. He will know his family hasn’t forgotten him, she added. “We are doing everything we can to speed his return home.”
Elina Beketova is a Democracy Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), focusing on the occupied territories of Ukraine. She worked as a journalist, editor, and TV anchor for various news stations in Kharkiv and Kyiv.
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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