«We will not surrender»: a rally in support of prisoners of war and missing persons took place in Mykolaiv

On Sunday, September 8, in the center of Mykolaiv, about 150 caring residents of the city came to a rally in support of Ukrainian prisoners of war and missing persons.

As the correspondent of NikVesti reports, such an action has already become traditional for the city, and its participants once again called for the return of their relatives home and asked to provide the families with clear answers about the fate of their loved ones.

The demonstrators, who included relatives of the prisoners, friends and concerned residents of the city, held placards with the inscriptions «Bring back our relatives», flags of the brigades where their loved ones serve, as well as photos of the soldiers who are in captivity.

One of the participants of the action was Svitlana, who said that her husband has been in captivity for four months. He disappeared in May 2024 during hostilities in the Donetsk region. Svitlana appealed to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the main coordination headquarters in Kyiv and the International Red Cross, but so far she has not received concrete answers.

«I want to know the truth: is my husband still alive or dead. They don't tell me anything, and I will continue the actions until I find the truth,» said Svitlana.

The action was also attended by mothers who have been waiting for their sons from captivity for more than one year. Marina, the mother of a prisoner of war, says that she has been going to rallies every Sunday for the third year in a row:

«My son was captured during the battles for Mariupol in April 2022. He has been in captivity for the third year already, and we know what is happening there — torture, inhumane conditions. During this time, several bodies of our soldiers were returned with traces of torture. We will go to these actions until everyone is returned home. We want the authorities to speed up the exchanges and hope that these actions will help bring our relatives back,» she says.

Among the protesters were also caring citizens who do not have relatives in captivity, but come to support the families of the soldiers. She argues that even if the actions do not produce immediate results, they are important in raising awareness of the problem.

«I joined only two months ago, but I understand how important it is not to be silent. I have no relatives in captivity, but I come here because I cannot remain indifferent. These are our people, our military. If we do not talk about them, the authorities may forget. I believe that such actions attract attention and do not allow the issues of missing persons and prisoners to recede into the background. The more people come to such rallies, the more we are heard,» she says.

Rallies in Mykolaiv are held every Sunday at the intersection of Tsentralnyi Avenue and Malaya Morska Street, and the relatives of the prisoners do not plan to stop their actions until their relatives return home. The participants of the action also hope that with the beginning of autumn, more people will join the actions in support of the military.

Relatives of prisoners of war and caring residents of Mykolaiv came to the rally on September 8. Photo: NikVesti