Among the 75 PoWs exchanged on 31st of May 2024 there were five women: four civilians and one military. It was 52nd PoW exchange and a total of 3135 Ukrainian PoWs were exchanged. One third of them had been wounded or severely wounded and they all needed medical treatment and rehabilitation. Every one of them had lost over 20kg of weight. One soldier from that last exchange had had a stroke in Russian captivity and would finally have the chance to get professional medical help. As a rule, not only busses transported prisoners to the place where the exchange would take place but several ambulances as well. Not a single person kept in Russian captivity had seen a representative of the Red Cross. The attitude to the female prisoners is practically the same as for the men prisoners, that is women experience the same tortures as the men.

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Maryana Chechelyuk is from Mariupol. She spent two years and two months in Russian captivity.

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After the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine Maryana and her younger sister were hiding from the Russian missile attacks in the Azovstal plant. The two sisters had tried to leave Mariupol through the “Green Corridor.” However, at the Russian filtration camp the Russians found out that Maryana served at the National Police so she was arrested and sent to the Donetsk SIZO (Detention facility). During the years of her captivity in Russia Maryana was kept in the most horrific conditions at the most infamous camps for Ukrainian PoWs: Olenivka colony, the prisons of Taganrog and Mariupol. The Russians did their best to win her over to the Russian side with the help of promises of a high salary in Russia as well as all kinds of threats.

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Maryana endured a lot of torture: she was starved, beaten, and survived other kinds of physical and psychological torture.  As a result her health deteriorated dramatically. A bad cold and angina turned into chronic bronchitis. The young woman was often kept in dungeons with rats and mice. Maryana lost a lot of weight and became very thin. She started to lose her hair and her regular periods stopped completely. Maryana did not get the letters her mother sent to her. Small wonder that Maryana was in the dark about her family. She did not know where they were and what had happened to the members of her family.  

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Maryana was summoned for several PoW exchanges but every time at the last moment she would be taken back to prison. The Russians would tell her that the Ukrainian side did not want to exchange her.

Despite the fact that Maryana was not a servicewoman and did not take part in the battles against the Russian invaders, she was kept in captivity as a PoW and was exchanged as a PoW.  Russia does not fulfil the Geneva Convention according to which Maryana does not fall into the category of combatants and should not be kept as a PoW.

It is very difficult to negotiate the exchange of Ukrainian PoWs as Russia does not acknowledge the Geneva Convention. The Ukrainian side refers to the Geneva Convention and shows the Russians that the exchange can be conducted according to two principles. Principle number one:

First the seriously wounded; secondly, women; thirdly, all the rest.

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Or one can use the second principle, that is the exchange according to the period of duration of the captivity. In other words, priority would be given to all those who had been kept longest in captivity. But the Russians don’t want to understand this logic. They seem to have their special “Russian logic.” They promise to think about the principles of exchange but in reality, they suggest their own lists of PoWs according to their own criteria and then say: “If you want, we can exchange those.” Of course Ukraine agrees as we want all our PoWs back. Ukraine never takes any alternative position. Ukraine always remembers who we deal with. Ukraine never forgets with whom we are negotiating. Russia. The Russians have a very treacherous and cunning attitude to PoW exchange. One can never even be sure that the exchange will actually take place as Russia can cancel it at the last moment.