Voice of Ukraine

From: Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 679):

‭‭Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors
the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
Psalm‬ ‭79:11‭-‬12‬ ‭

Today is a day of happy news. Today, 230 Ukrainians returned from the Russian captivity. It was the largest POW swap since the beginning of the full-scale invasion! Russia has been reluctant to exchange captives, so this is big!

Among those who came home today, there are some amazing stories:

• there are six civilians who are almost impossible to get on the swap list as they shouldn’t be among the prisoners of war (another war crime by Russia), and there is no legislation to control it
• there are 48 people who had been considered missing! I can’t imagine the joy of their families – “Your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found”!
• there is the last female marine who was taken captive at Azovstal in Mariupol in May 2022
• there is a border guard who was taken captive at Chongar checkpoint (the entryway from the occupied Crimea into the Kherson region) on February 24, 2022, during the first hours of the full-scale invasion. He spent 679 days in Russian captivity!
• there are defenders of the Zmiinyi Island (Snake Island) and Chornobyl NPP who were taken captive during the first days of this full-scale war. These people had no contact with their families and no news about the situation in Ukraine (allowed only Russian propagandist reports) — how did they make it without going insane?

I want to rejoice because they are finally home, but I also want to weep, knowing they had gone through torture, abuse, and humiliation and remembering that hundreds remain in captivity.
Lord, have mercy on all of them!