Russia-Ukraine war: Relatives of POW's captured by Moscow call for information on loved ones

Relatives of prisoners of war captured by the Russians following the fall of Mariupol gathered in central Kyiv on Thursday demanding information about their husbands, fathers and sons following a strike on a prison in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine last week.

One of those gathered was Eugenia Vasylieva who last saw her husband Valeriy Vasyliev in Mariupol on the night of February 24, the day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

That night he went to defend his city.

Her 7-year-old daughter Zlata Vasylieva, holding a placard calling for her father's return, said: “I want my dad to be alive and that he never die."

Russia has claimed that Ukraine’s military used U.S.-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic.

The Ukrainian military denied making any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka.

The intelligence arm of the Ukrainian defense ministry claimed in a statement Wednesday to have evidence that local Kremlin-backed separatists colluded with the Russian FSB, the KGB’s main successor agency, and mercenary group Wagner to mine the barrack before “using a flammable substance, which led to the rapid spread of fire in the room.”

Ex-commander of the Azov Regiment Макsym Zhorin told the AP there were around 1,500 defenders of Mariupol in Olenivka before the explosion.

They were part of 2,400 soldiers from the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian national guard and other military units defending Mariupol who surrendered under orders from Ukraine’s military in May.

Relatives of prisoners of war are increasingly frustrated at the lack of information they are getting about the fate of their loved ones.

Because the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) acted as a guarantor of the security of the military members who left Azovstal in May, they are looking to the committee to give them answers.

Kateryna Chyzykova saw the name of her husband in the list of wounded soldiers, which Russia's ministry of defense published after the explosion. She says she's tried to contact the ICRC to try and find out about her husband's condition but has so far been unsuccessful.

“My husband left Azovstal, trusting the Red Cross,” said Chyzykova.

So far the ICRC has not been able to access Olenivka and the wounded, so they have been unable to verify the list of names.

U.S. officials believe Russia is working to fabricate evidence concerning the strike.

U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia is looking to plant false evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the July 29 attack on the prison, which left 53 dead and wounded dozens more, a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence finding told The Associated Press on Wednesday.