KYIV, Ukraine - Polina is a middle-aged woman from eastern Ukraine who was devastated when Russian troops captured her hometown in 2022 and seized her ailing father, who's blind in one eye and walks with a cane.
Then came another gut-wrenching blow. Russian authorities contacted her on social media and demanded she assist them to ensure that her father — who's now 71 — was well treated.
"They pressured me for four months. They wanted me to gather some information about one of their attacks," said Polina.
Another time, the Russians sent her a video of her father.
"They said, 'Look, he's OK. He's smiling. And you haven't done anything for us yet.' They kind of pressured me, like, 'It's time to do something,'" said Polina, who fled her hometown and now lives in a northern part of the country that's still under Ukrainian control.
She didn't help the Russians, and they eventually stopped contacting her. But they accused her father of spying for Ukraine and have held him nearly four years. Polina asked that we use only her first name because she fears for her father's safety.
Taking advantage of vulnerable families
Russia is believed to be holding thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians as prisoners of war, according to human rights groups and reporting from media outlets like the Kyiv Independent. And what happened to Polina has happened to many relatives of the prisoners, Ukrainians say.
"The families are in a very vulnerable position. They are trying to learn anything about their loved ones in Russian captivity," said Petro Yatsenko, the Ukrainian government spokesman for the agency that deals with Ukrainian families of prisoners held by Russia.
He said Russia exploits this by withholding information in formal government channels. Instead, the Russians contact Ukrainian families directly.
"Russia never shares any official information about people who are imprisoned," said Yatsenko.
He believes two Russian agencies, military intelligence, or GRU, and the main domestic security agency, the FSB, are running this highly orchestrated campaign.
When the Russians capture a Ukrainian — a soldier or a civilian — they look up the prisoner's social media profile and begin contacting family members, Yatsenko said.
Russia often tells the relatives to do things like check out security at key locations in their hometowns, or join demonstrations against Ukraine's government.
Guidance for the families
Yatsenko said most Ukrainians refuse and pass on the information to Ukrainian authorities. He offers a simple message to families on how to respond to the Russians.
"Our main advice is very short but very strict. Don't believe. Don't ask anything. And don't be afraid," he said.
Russia and Ukraine periodically exchange POWs. Nearly 10,000 Ukrainian troops have been freed and a similar number of Russians have been released, according to both sides.
Neither side says how many prisoners are still being held. While both sides capture enemy soldiers, only Russia holds a large number of civilians, and rarely releases them.
Russia sometimes lets Ukrainian prisoners speak to their families. But Yatsenko says they're forced to deliver false messages that go like this: "Russia is treating me well and they are ready to free us. But the Ukrainian government does nothing and that's why I'm still here. Please, mom or dear wife or sister, protest in the street."
"Of course, this is not true," he added.
Widespread reports of abuses
Many Ukrainian prisoners say upon their release that they were tortured in Russian captivity.
A 2024 report from the United Nations human rights office found that "Russian authorities have subjected Ukrainian POWs to widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment."
The office said nearly all of the 174 Ukrainian POWs interviewed since March 2023 reported "torture or ill-treatment" that included "severe beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, suffocation ... and threats of severe violence to the individual or their family."
The same report found that 104 of 205 Russian POWs, or 51%, said they were abused "during the initial stages of their captivity." The report added that "nearly all cases, torture and ill-treatment stopped when prisoners arrived at official places of internment (in Ukraine), where conditions appeared generally compliant with international standards."
Valentina Shcherbyna said her 21-year-old son Mykola, a civilian, was seized by the Russians in the southern city of Kherson in November 2022.
The Russians accused him of spying, she said. This past April, an unidentified Russian contacted Shcherbyna on social media and demanded $10,000.
"I was afraid to make things worse for my son. I was really scared and I didn't know what to do," she said.
She contacted a Ukrainian policeman handling her son's case. The policeman checked around and came back with surprising news — good news.
Her son was about to be released. Apparently the Russian contacting her was trying to extort money before her son was freed.
Mykola is now home, one of the few civilians who's been released.
"He was beaten and after that they made him stand. His legs were swollen. He stood for 21 days, resting only at night. He lost a lot of weight. But his mental state is OK," Shcherbyna said of her son.
Meanwhile, Polina, whose 71-year-old father is still in captivity, fears for his health. Whenever the two sides trade prisoners, she hopes he'll be freed.
"With every exchange, I'm waiting for him," she said.
