Evgeniy Maloletka Instagram – RUSSIAN PRISONERS OF WAR get to make phone calls home. UKRAINIANS DON’T.
FAR WESTERN UKRAINE — Precious few choices are available to Alexander, a 26-year-old Russian soldier, since his capture: Clothes, meals and the hours of his day are rigidly accounted for in the camp for prisoners of war.
But Ukraine allows Alexander to call home to his family in Kursk, a Russian city about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the Ukrainian border, and he says that has kept him grounded.
It is a lifeline unavailable to Ukrainian POWs. Now, infuriated Ukrainian families are demanding an end to the phone calls imprisoned Russian soldiers get to make.
“To be able to talk to your loved ones is worth a lot. I’ve already been in prison for almost a year. I’m losing my mind,” Alexander told The Associated Press during a recent visit for several news outlets to Ukraine’s main POW camp, as he completed his work shift. “People are not made of steel.”
He said the brief conversations, closely monitored by his Ukrainian captors, pulled him from the brink of despair – even though for him and all Russian POWs, the calls are growing rarer by the week….
Text LORI HINNANT
https://apnews.com/article/585d93ec00fe7a80a9c520e265ac5a6d | Posted on 27/May/2024 12:48:12
