Letters and cigarettes from a Russian prisoner of war: ‘Russia and Ukraine are one and the same, they must be united’

In exchange for speaking to journalists, prisoners ask for cigarettes. The guards at this detention centre in Ukraine’s Sumy province first open the packet to check that nothing forbidden is hidden inside. Roman accepts the cigarettes to smoke later with the dozen prisoners of war with whom he shares a cell. He is 32 years old and is one of more than 2,000 Russian soldiers who, according to the Centre for Defence Strategies, have been captured since August during the Ukrainian offensive in the Russian province of Kursk. Roman does not think there is a difference between being captured defending Russian territory or on the front in Ukraine: “For most of my people, Russia and Ukraine are the same, they should be united.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has stressed that the POWs are a success because they represent a bargaining chip for an intensified exchange of prisoners held by Russian. The Ukrainian army can only defend and retreat on its national territory, but in Kursk its brigades advanced almost without resistance during the first month of the incursion, capturing hundreds of enemy soldiers who are speeding up the return home of dozens of Ukrainians.

Kyiv has said that more than 3,700 people, including civilians and military personnel, had been repatriated by the end of October, thanks in large part to the mediation of third countries such as Qatar. Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets estimates that more than 13,000 of his compatriots are still in Russian captivity.

Officers from two assault brigades fighting in Kursk told EL PAÍS last Saturday during a visit to the border that the front in the Russian province is fluctuating; positions are constantly being lost and gained, which allows them to capture up to four enemy soldiers per company every day. These sources agree that half of the Russian troops are still recent recruits who are inexperienced and more inclined to surrender.

Exchanges of prisoners of war have multiplied since the Ukrainian operation in Kursk began last August. The last one took place on October 18, when each side freed a total of 95 detainees. On the Russian side, many of the beneficiaries were recruits from Kursk. Some of them came from the Sumy prison. On October 25, there were dozens of Russian inmates there, according to its deputy director, who asked not to give precise details. This soldier, a colonel who asked, like the prisoners of war, to be identified only by his first name, reported that they had several hundred Russians in their custody. The largest prison for Russian soldiers in Ukraine is located in Lviv, in the west of the country.

Roman is a man hardened by prison life, with a crooked nose from past brawls and a shaved head. He had been an installer of industrial refrigerators by profession, which is all he can say about his past before joining the army in 2019. “It is a more stable job than what I had before,” he explains, asking not to show his face on camera, dressed in a white shirt and trousers given to him by the prison administration. Roman is in a cell for officers; he was a sergeant in a motorized infantry regiment. He was captured in August. He says he has not fought in Ukraine. He reveals that he has cousins in the Ukrainian province of Khmelnitsky, but that they stopped communicating with him in 2014, when pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region took up arms. Roman says he does not understand why this part of his family broke off contact with him.

Roman is an iceberg until he is asked if his parents in Bryansk know where he is. He sadly says he doesn’t know, that he has written letters to them, but there has been no reply. Other prisoners say the same. The deputy director of the prison explains that prisoners write letters almost every day, and that these are handed over to the Red Cross, which sends them to Russia. “I don’t know what happens to these letters in their country,” says the colonel.

Better war than a Russian prison

Yevgeny, 21, writes regularly to his family. He is the most talkative of the interviewees, and the most sensitive. He was sentenced to five years in prison for drug trafficking and last July signed a contract to join the army. A month later he was captured in Kursk, wounded by shrapnel and abandoned by his comrades, according to his account. The 40 men who made up his unit were former convicts. “In Russia we think that anything, even war, is better than a Russian prison. The cell we are in now is incomparably better than that,” says Yevgeny. Of the four interviewees, he is the only one who is against the war and points out that his parents are also against it.

In one of the cells where the Chechen fighters are held, young Masud emphasizes the same thing as Yevgeny: the comforts they have, unthinkable in a Russian prison. There is heating, they can shower once a week, they have a television with channels on which they can watch Ukrainian news, but also films and sports. And they can borrow books from the center’s library.

Magomed is 47 years old and from Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. He does not want to reveal what he did during the Chechen wars [1994-2017]; he simply says that he was at home. Has the Russian offensive that devastated his city reminded him of the invasion of Ukraine? Does he feel resentment towards the Russians? “War is war, there is no other way, and I don’t want to talk about politics,” Magomed replies. He has two children and admits that he had not thought about the possibility that one day they might have to fight. “But I don’t want to talk about politics,” he repeats.

Why is Russia fighting against Ukraine? Does he believe that, as Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claims, Europe has been taken over by Nazis and is a hotbed of degeneration of traditional values? “I don’t know, I’ve never been to Europe,” Magomed says. “Yes, you have, you’re in Europe now!” Masud replies with a laugh. Why does he think they are in Europe? Masud says he sees them there, pointing to the television that is currently broadcasting images of a news program.

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