“When will my father hug me?”: Kyiv holds rally in support of Azov POWs

On Sunday, February 18, a regular event took place in the capital at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, with attendance from family members of prisoners and activists. Their purpose was to raise awareness that the defenders of Mariupol are still being held captive by the Russian Federation.

Hromadske and News.LIVE reported this.

Relatives of Ukrainian defenders came to the rally.

Family members and loved ones of prisoners of war, along with concerned citizens of Ukraine, are making efforts to bring attention to the Azov soldiers who have been held captive by Russia for nearly two years. With each event, the number of participants continues to grow.

"We are here because my brother has been in captivity for 21 months," Yevhen Shevchuk says.

Yevhen is from Mariupol, and his younger Andrii has been held captive by the Russians for 21 months. The only thing Yevhen knows for sure is that he is still alive, with no way to make any further contact or acquire 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 choosing his words.

Yevhen added:

"I'm sorry that I speak Russian. We're from Mariupol, and you know the kind of neighbor that we have there. But we're making an effort to speak Ukrainian. It's necessary for us to learn because what else can we do?"

Yevgen goes with his father and friends to all rallies regarding prisoners of war. He says they really need support.

^{Photo: News.LIVE}

In total, about two thousand people gathered on the capital's main square. Wives and mothers of fighters and their children attended the rally. Some of the children have never seen their dads before. Military personnel and former prisoners also joined the action.

Families of Azov prisoners of war hold such events every week.

More than 900 Azov soldiers who defended Mariupol continue to remain in Russian captivity.

For 86 days, they did not allow the Russians to transfer forces and resources on time to develop success in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, reported the commander of the "Azov" brigade, Lt. Col. Denys Prokopenko (Redis) on January 31.

On February 8, Ukraine held another exchange of prisoners of war. Another 100 Ukrainian defenders returned home.

Among the rescued service members are 49 national guardsmen, 25 border guards, and 26 servicemen of Ukraine's armed forces, including 11 territorial defense fighters.

Eighty-four defended Mariupol; in particular, 82 of them were "Azovstal" defenders, and the rest performed tasks in the Donetsk and Luhansk directions. All those who managed to be freed this time were soldiers or sergeants.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, 3,135 men and women defenders have been freed from Russian captivity.

As Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's intelligence, said, Russia is gambling on the return of captured fighters of the Azov Regiment, because Ukrainian society perceives this topic as very painful.

For reference:

At the beginning of the full-scale war, Mariupol was blockaded by Russian troops. The houses of at least 84,000 citizens were utterly destroyed. It is impossible to carry out an exact count of the dead. According to estimates at the time, up to 22,000 residents died in Mariupol.

On May 4, 2022, the Russians broke into the Azovstal plant, which Ukrainian soldiers protected. Fighting continued between the occupiers and Ukrainian defenders.

Therefore, on May 17, the General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces reported that the higher military command had given an order to the commanders of the units in "Azovstal" to preserve the lives of the personnel – the Russians captured the fighters.