Is it possible to rise from the dead for an ordinary prisoner? Video from the other side

One evening I received a call from the occupied territory. A woman's voice told me that she had access to the colonies in the "DPR" and "LPR" where Ukrainian prisoners are held. She said she searched for them, visited them, and delivered humanitarian aid. 

I listened with great skepticism as there are dozens or even hundreds of groups on the Internet that promise to help the families of prisoners. There are even fortune tellers who can tell from a photo whether a person is alive, wounded, in captivity, or dead. Families who have had no information about their loved ones for months are trying all possible and impossible ways to find out at least something.

At the end of the conversation with the voice "from there," I mentioned the name of my friend. There had been no information about him for a year. Neither the Red Cross nor any official party confirmed that he was in captivity. I asked to find at least something about him. A week later, I received a message: "Expect a video with him." 

A voice from the occupied territory

Last March, my friend Nastia was looking for a volunteer to take her parents out of Mariupol. Through social media, she found a man with experience of several successful evacuations. He agreed to pick up Nastia's relatives, but that trip ended in captivity for him.

A year has passed. Nastia's family still hasn't gotten out of Mariupol. The volunteer who was supposed to take her parents out was released from captivity in July. Now he takes the volunteer aid to the Bakhmut axis and takes people out from there. He does not want to talk about himself. He calls me and asks me to do a story about his friend, a volunteer named Dasha, who is doing incredible things, according to him. He asks if he can give her my contact. I agree.

In the evening, Dasha reaches out through messenger. I ask her if we can meet to talk in person, and she replies: "It will be very difficult." It turns out that Dasha is in the occupied territory. I don't know her last name, what she looks like, I only hear her voice. And I can't check whether what she says is true.

Dasha says about herself: "I did what the Red Cross could not do." And to confirm her words, she gives a link to the Telegram channel "Help for Ukrainian Prisoners" that she founded and runs.

The Telegram channel contains short video messages from different men. All of them wear the same blue robes. These are captured Ukrainians: military and civilians. I get the impression that they were specially dressed before the filming. According to Dasha, she meets with them in person in the colonies: she records their appeals, brings them food and medicine, and passes them letters from their families.

Among the dozens of short video messages, I pay attention to one that lasts up to two minutes. A thin man with half his teeth missing clenches his hands together. It is obvious that he is very worried. He introduces himself: Fedir Stanislavovych Kozak, born on April 20, 1976. He was taken prisoner on April 7, 2022.

"I want to address my precious family. Anzhelika, my dear, I am alive and more or less healthy. Anzhelika, my lovebird, wherever you are, please contact me, my angel, write me a message, write me a letter. I live and breathe only by you and our children. I love you very much. Be good. Hold on to each other and always remember that we are one family."

A day later, a comment from a woman who calls herself a relative of Fedir's appears below the video. I write to her. The woman says that Fedir is her sister's husband. They are from Mariupol. Until the beginning of April 2022, they stayed in the city, like everyone else, surviving the bombing. On April 7, they decided to leave, but were detained at a checkpoint. The Russians released Fedir's wife and children. He was not: they had information that during the Anti-Terrorist Operation, he was a chaplain in one of the Armed Forces brigades. It turned out to be true: Fedir is indeed a priest.

His family is now safe. His wife Anzhelika is in Canada, his wife's sister is in Istanbul. He has been in Horlivka for almost a year now, in a penal colony. A relative sends me wedding photos of Fedir and his sister. The man in them is much more rounded than in the video. During the year of captivity, Fedir lost half his weight.

Can an outsider get to the colonies where prisoners are held?

There are hundreds of similar video messages on this Telegram channel. The prisoners send greetings to their families. They say that they are well fed and treated well, and ask to be released from captivity. Among all of them, I do not find any high-profile or familiar names.

Dasha says that she records all these appeals herself. She assures me that she was able to reach an agreement with the "authorities" of the occupied territories and the leadership of the colonies. She assures me that her Ukrainian passport does not prevent her from going to places where official representatives or international organizations are not allowed.

I clearly understand that Dasha was not allowed to visit the prisoners because the occupation authorities are soft-hearted. That all this could be a special operation. From time to time, the Telegram channel makes statements saying that the Ukrainian government is doing nothing to free its citizens. Therefore, despite the undoubted benefit of Dasha's work, thanks to which relatives learn about their loved ones and can send them a parcel or letter, there are still many open questions.

I am confused: what does Dasha care if I write about her? What will she get out of it? Don't they want to use me as a journalist for certain purposes? Dasha herself explains that she is going public because she is being threatened with reports to the SBU, her cards — which she uses to collect money to buy aid for the captives — are being blocked, and she wants to tell people that she is not doing anything wrong. And she works not for the occupation authorities, but with them to have access to the prisoners.

A refined special operation?

I addressed my doubts to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. This is an official body of the Ukrainian government. They confirmed my suspicions: "It's very strange that an outsider gets access to restricted facilities," says Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the headquarters. He believes that this could be a refined special operation to foment discontent among the relatives of the prisoners.

Yatsenko says that the video message is a definite plus for both relatives and the Ukrainian side involved in the exchange of prisoners, because it is proof that the person is alive and that he or she is being held captive. However, there are risks that those who do this are trying to agitate society, especially desperate relatives who have not had any information about their loved ones for months. It's like they say, look, we can deliver parcels to your relatives, we can search for them, and the state authorities are not capable of doing this. In fact, the men are still in captivity not because the Ukrainian side does not want to exchange them, but because the Russian side does not let them go. And the so-called authorities of the so-called republics have no influence on this process. Everything depends on Moscow.

"There is nothing wrong with our work. We are trying to help the soldiers; their relatives can confirm this. Some fighters now have correspondence with their families thanks to us. My husband spent six months in captivity. And I know what it's like to wait. And I know what it was like for my husband when he did not know what was happening to him. When he was released, we decided to do something like this: to help the family find out that their loved one was in captivity and to help the prisoner," Dasha addresses my doubts.

Mariupol, captivity, release

She doesn't tell me much about herself. She used to live in Mariupol. Before the full-scale invasion, she and her husband worked in retail — in the supermarket "Shchyryi Kum". After February 24, they were unable to leave the city. In May, the Russians detained her husband. He was a civilian at the time, but had been a military man in the past.

"I heard the terrible phrase: ‘Wait. Ukraine is doing everything possible to bring every Ukrainian home’." 

Dasha says she waited for several months. Then she decided to act on her own.

"I went to look for answers in the places where he was held. I knocked on every door in those places. I was granted a prison visit with him, wrote a bunch of statements that he was being held illegally, and he was eventually released. They all got sick of me."

Six months later, in November 2022, Dasha's husband was released. And then the two of them started storming the "administration" to gain access to the prisoners and spread information about them. I ask Dasha how she managed to get through. She replies:

"It was a long way. We sent requests to various 'ministries', to (ombudsperson Darya] Morozova, [Denis] Pushilin. We started going to the departments and ministries of the 'DPR' and 'LPR' located in Donetsk and Luhansk." 

In January 2023, Dasha was allowed to enter the colony. At that time, the Telegram channel published lists of those she found behind the barbed wire. Then the channel started publishing photos of the prisoners. And in February, they started posting short videos.

Families were burying their loved ones, then it turned out that they were captured

Dasha visits the colonies in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts where Ukrainians are held once or twice a week. She claims that the colony administration does not charge for access. Supposedly they are interested in Ukrainian prisoners returning home as soon as possible. This is a financial burden as people need to be fed and clothed.

In addition to letters from relatives, Dasha brings the prisoners towels, rubber slippers, underwear, socks, shampoo, shower gels, medicines, and food. Currently, she keeps in touch with 700 families of prisoners. Dasha says there were several families who had even buried their loved ones and then saw a video of them alive on the channel.

During the conversation, I tell Dasha that I am waiting for a man from captivity myself. For over a year, there has been no information about my family friend Oleksandr Boichuk. In official documents, his name is written as "unconfirmed captivity".

I send Dasha the details and a photo. She promises to look for Boichuk, although she assumes that he could have been sent to Russia because he is not an ordinary soldier.

A week later I receive a message from Dasha: "Hello. We found him. We are clarifying the place of detention. Expect a video with him. The main thing is that he is alive and healthy". But until there is a video, I forbid myself to believe in a miracle.

"Let me know when my daughter was born, with what weight, her name, who she looks like"

Most of the people whose video messages are posted on the Telegram channel have never been written about by any media. They are not high-profile. Many are from Mariupol. If not military, they are often former employees of the SBU, prosecutors, or other agencies. Many were detained while trying to evacuate from the city.

This happened to Artem Mishustin. The video from the colony with him was recorded on March 18, 2023. The date is written on the green board behind his back. Artem is addressing his relatives.

"Hello, Sasha, mom, dad, Andriusha. As you can see, I am alive and well, I am fed here, it is warm. I am very worried about you. Write me letters as soon as you find out where I am. Let me know how my daughter was born, with what weight, how she was named, who she looks like." 

Below this video message is a comment from Artem's wife. I write to the woman, and Oleksandra tells me that she hasn't had any information about her husband for a year. During this time, she did give birth to a daughter. She tells me that Artem used to be a soldier, but at the time of his capture, he had been out of the Armed Forces for six months.

Andriy Nayman is perhaps the only one of the hundreds of people whose video messages are posted on the channel who has been covered by the media. He is a military doctor, head of the neurological department of the 555th Mariupol hospital. After the hospital was destroyed, he moved to Azovstal. He left the plant with everyone else — by order of the command. So he has been in captivity since May 18.

I contacted Nayman's wife Olha. She told me that she had been subscribed to the channel where the video with her husband appeared for a long time, but she did not contact the volunteers themselves because she knew for sure that her husband was in captivity.

"I didn't want to add to people's work for nothing... But every time they posted videos of prisoners, I kept expecting to see a video of him. Through volunteers, we managed to get and send a letter."

Video message from the other side

On April 13, the channel again posted a batch of video messages. The first one is only 17 seconds long. I recognize the man even from the freeze frame.

"I am Oleksandr Vyacheslavovych Boichuk. I am a prisoner of war. I am alive and well. I say hello to everyone who knows me, remembers me. I hope to see you soon. Together and forever. I am done". 

My Oleksandr Boichuk. He is alive. Ukrainian-speaking Sasha speaks Russian. And this is the first time in a long time that Russian doesn't irritate me. And it’s the best video I've ever seen.

I still don't know who Dasha is. On what conditions did the occupation authorities open the doors to the colonies for her and allow her to record videos with Ukrainian prisoners. Did she sign an agreement with the FSB? Or is this some kind of special operation in which they want to use me as a journalist?

I have a lot of unanswered questions. But there is one statement: Dasha managed to do what the Red Cross failed to do. She found a person about whom there was no information for over a year. And she brought back some peace and hope. To Sasha's family. And to me. She has already done the same for dozens of families who are finding their relatives through Dasha's Telegram channel.

Now, in the lists opposite the name of Oleksandr Boichuk, instead of "unconfirmed captivity" they will write "confirmed". And maybe Sasha will have more chances to finally return home. Where his new home will be is anyone's guess. His previous ones — in Crimea, where he lived until 2014, and in Berdiansk, where he settled afterwards — are under occupation. But home is where you are expected.

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On July 2, 2017, hromadske’s YouTube channel released the documentary Henichesk, about the story of the only Ukrainian minesweeper, its crew, and commander Oleksandr Boichuk.