Russia is using Ukrainian prisoners of war to provoke protests inside Ukraine. The soldiers are forced to call their relatives and urge them to "take to the streets", Politico reports with reference to a representative of the coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war, Petro Yatsenko.
The publication also cites the story of Valentyna Tkachenko from Chernihiv, whose husband was captured at the beginning of the great war at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On 29 November, she received a call from him that lasted only three minutes.
" I was not allowed to ask him questions. As soon as I tried, he shook his head and just said no. Instead, he kept saying: ‘Valya, go make things hard for Kyiv. Kyiv does not want to take us back,'” Tkachenko recalled. “Then he said he was sorry and ended the call, promising to call me back if he ever has a chance.”
According to Yatsenko, relatives of other prisoners also received similar calls from them.
"A person has not heard from a relative for more than a year, and here he calls and says that he is alive. Russians are ready to exchange him, but Ukraine does nothing. Recently these calls became massive. So, we understood that this is a campaign to cause distrust in the government" Yatsenko explained.
He noted that more than 90% of Ukrainian defenders who returned from captivity say they were tortured.
"They were deprived of adequate food and sleep. People are forced to burn tattoos or consume only Russian propaganda. They are not allowed to communicate with their relatives," Yatsenko added.