«The war continues, captivity kills»: a car rally was held in support of prisoners of war in Mykolaiv

On Sunday, July 28, a peaceful reminder action was held in Mykolaiv about the prisoners of war of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the missing.

As the correspondent of NikVesti reports, about 300 people and 100 cars joined the action.

The organizers noted that the race is dedicated to the second anniversary of the terrorist attack in Olenivka. On the night of July 29, 2022, the Russian army blew up one of the barracks in the Olenivka colony near Donetsk with captured Azov citizens. As a result of the explosion, 54 defenders of Mariupol were killed, another 130 were injured.

The head of the all-Ukrainian public organization «Union of Mothers and Wives of the Defenders of Ukraine» Liliia Pershyna said that once again it is necessary to remind the citizens, Ukrainians and the world community that the prisoners must return home.

«Courageous boys return from captivity like a shadow with a lot of diseases. We can only imagine the moral pressure they feel there. Torture, inhumane treatment, fictitious sentences are all covered in the media, but we once again want to appeal to the world community to unite. And we want to be heard by all possible institutions, embassies, diplomatic missions of different countries and international human rights organizations,» said Liliia Pershyna, head of the Mykolaiv branch of the Association.

People held placards with reminder slogans: «Can you withstand 2 years of torture?», «You fought for me, I'm fighting for you!», «Captivity kills! Do not be silent!».

«I don't know anything about my brother, he doesn't have a confirmation from captivity, he disappeared. Today is exactly half a year since we were informed that he went missing because there is no body. Communication with him was cut off in the Mariinsky direction. The territory there is occupied, so it is not possible to conduct search operations. That is why we attend such events in order to draw attention to missing persons and prisoners of war,» said Kateryna, a participant of the event.

The girl, Kateryna, said that she joins such events to draw attention to the captured marines, because her father has been in captivity for the second year.

«My father is a prisoner, a soldier of the 501st separate battalion of marines, he was in Mariupol. He was captured in April 2022. We try to come to every promotion, car races, photo exhibitions and other events. We want to draw society's attention to the issue of prisoners of war, to remind that many of our people are still in captivity. Also, to always keep this issue relevant, because exchanges do not happen that often, many marines are still in captivity,» she said.