Yulia's husband was different from most Ukrainians captured by the Russian army, usually prisoners of war whose fate moved crowds. He was serving time for assault in a prison in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine when Russian troops took control of the area in 2022. Ahead of the liberation of the territory by Ukrainian forces later that year, Russian forces moved him inside Russia -– to Yulia's despair and to general indifference.
"I got so scared and started crying. How can that happen? Why would they take him? That's not legal, is it?" Yulia said. The 32-year-old declined to give their family name to protect the safety of her husband Yuri, father to her five-year-old daughter Nastya.
There were over 3,000 Ukrainian convicts in 11 penitentiary centres that have fallen to Russian forces since 2022, Ukraine's justice ministry and NGOs said. Rights organisations estimate around 2,000 of them were taken to Russia. Russian authorities have been releasing those who purged their sentence -- but they face a Kafkaesque path back.
Their stories shed a light on the wartime treatment of a population often treated as outcast, whose only support comes from families and cross-border grassroots solidarity. Yulia said Yuri never spoke about detention conditions in Russia to avoid worrying her. Former prisoners and NGOs however painted a grim picture.
They witnessed abuse, restricted access to medication, and pressures to take on Russian citizenship. "They beat us simply for being Ukrai.