“When will my daddy hug me?” A demonstration in support of Azov prisoners of war was held on Maidan (PHOTOS)
On February 18, a weekly demonstration took place on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, attended by relatives of the prisoners and activists. They want to reiterate that the defenders of Mariupol are still in Russian captivity.
This was reported by a journalist for hromadske.
“This is my father and my brothers. We are here because my brother has been in captivity for 21 months,” says Yevhen Shevchuk, who is standing in the center in a Panama hat.
Evgeniy goes with his father and friends to all rallies regarding prisoners of war. He says they really need support.
Yevhen is originally from Mariupol. His younger brother, Andrii, has been in Russian captivity for 21 months. All he knows about him is that he is alive. There is no communication or additional information about him.
“The authorities are not saying anything, we are trying to find out something ourselves, but so far there is silence,” Yevhen says, sometimes searching for words.
He added: “I apologize for speaking a little Russian. We are from Mariupol, you know what kind of neighbor we have there. But we try to speak Ukrainian. We have to learn, because what else can we do?”
Yevhen goes with his father and friends to all the demonstrations for prisoners of war. He says they really need support.
About two thousand people gathered on the main square of the capital. The wives and mothers of the soldiers and their children attended the demonstration. Some of the children had never seen their fathers. The military and former prisoners of war also joined the action.
The families of Azov's prisoners of war hold such events every week.
More than 900 Azov fighters who held the defense of Mariupol remain in Russian captivity. For 86 days, they prevented the Russians from timely deploying forces and equipment to build on their success in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, Azov Brigade commander Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko (Redis) said on January 31.
Ukraine conducted another exchange of prisoners of war on February 8. Another 100 Ukrainian defenders returned home.
Among the rescued servicemen are 49 National Guardsmen, 25 border guards, 26 Armed Forces servicemen, including 11 territorial defense soldiers.
84 were defending Mariupol, including 82 Azovstal defenders, and the rest were performing missions in the Donetsk and Luhansk sectors. All of those liberated this time were privates or sergeants.
Overall, since the beginning of the great war, 3,135 Ukrainian defenders have been liberated from Russian captivity.