Washington —

While the debate over U.S. aid to Ukraine has focused largely on military aid, Kyiv is asking Washington for support in another key area — locating prisoners of war and civilian hostages held by Russia and helping them rehabilitate upon their return home.

Ukraine has also called on the United States to impose sanctions on those who tortured Ukrainian prisoners in Russian prisons.

Tetiana asked that her last name be kept secret for the safety of her family. She said her father, a civilian pensioner, was taken away in April 2022 during the Russian occupation of his small Ukrainian village.

She didn’t learn of his fate until Ukrainian troops liberated the village. She later learned more from Ukrainian prisoners of war who had shared his cell before being exchanged for prisoners.

“They were given just enough food to stay alive… They were not allowed to sit. They were always standing,” she told VOA.

Tetiana said other treatments amounted to psychological torture.

“They may be told that they were taken [prisoner] exchange, and then come back the same day and tell us, ‘We want to exchange you, but Ukraine doesn’t want you back,’” she said.

Tetyana spoke to VOA in March during a visit to the U.S. Senate and State Department, along with other relatives of prisoners of war and representatives of the Ukrainian Headquarters for the Coordination of the Treatment of Prisoners of War (KSHPPV).

Olha Pylypey, a member of the small delegation of relatives, told VOA the story of her brother Yuliy Pylypey, a Marine Team member who fought in Mariupol. On April 12, 2022, he and other Ukrainian marines were captured by Russian troops at the Ilyich Steel Plant.

The released prisoner told her that her brother was being held in Kursk, Russia. They also told Yuli’s family that Russian prison administrators and guards treated Ukrainian prisoners much worse than ordinary Russian prisoners.

“They lined up [Ukrainian prisoners] “The aggressive dogs were released to deal with them and they were not allowed to defend themselves,” said Peripe, who feared Yuli might also have been raped.

Officials from the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) interviewed and documented 60 recently released Ukrainian military personnel and found that most of them had suffered sexual violence.

“Nearly every Ukrainian prisoner of war we interviewed described how Russian servicemen or officials tortured them while in captivity, including repeated beatings, electric shocks, threats of execution, prolonged stress positions, and mock executions. More than half of them were sexually assaulted Violence,” said HRMMU director Danielle Bell.

Russian officials deny accusations of mistreating Ukrainian prisoners. On November 30, 2023, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova said that she visited 119 Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian prisons and found that the prisons met international standards.

Andrei Kravtsov, head of the Ukrainian NGO Military Medical Staff, helped track down his sister-in-law, military medic Olina Kravtsova, who took part in the prisoner exchange after being imprisoned in Russia for six months.

“They were tortured, beaten and used as sandbags,” Krevtsov said. “Russian special forces trained them. They beat them like meat. She lost a lot of weight. When she came home At that time, she weighed 77 pounds.”

Krevtsov joined other relatives of prisoners in asking the United States and its partners to sanction not only the Russian leader but also prison staff.

“Putin did not personally torture these people,” he said.

Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andrei Yusov, a member of the KSHPPV, told VOA that Ukrainian officials understand that the United States cannot force Russia to comply with the Geneva Conventions, which sets standards for the humane treatment of people affected by armed conflict. Including prisoners of war.

But he said the United States could help locate Ukrainians in Russian prisons so they could be put on prisoner exchange lists.

The Red Cross has identified 5,000 Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia. But Ukrainian officials say tens of thousands of people are still missing, including civilians and prisoners of war.

Yusof also stressed the importance of rehabilitating released prisoners and helping their families.

He said: “The thousands of family members of our defenders who ended up in prison, as well as the thousands of Ukrainians who have returned from Russian captivity, need social, psychological and medical support, all of which are the subject of our work with our partners. ” told VOA.

Ukrainian human rights lawyers told the BBC that Russia does not distinguish between civilians and military prisoners, arguing that both are “detained in connection with confrontations with SVO,” which stands for Russia’s Special Military Operations and is Moscow’s official name for its invasion of Ukraine.

Lawyers for the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian organization that won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, told the BBC they believe there are around 2,000 Ukrainian civilian prisoners in Russia and the occupied territories.

According to a report released by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine in March, at least 32 Ukrainian military personnel were executed while in Russian captivity between December 1, 2023, and February 29, 2024.