‘They couldn’t break them’ Ukrainian photographer Kostiantyn Liberov captures the brutal physical toll of Russian captivity
In late May, Russia and Ukraine conducted their first prisoner exchange in over three months. The swap saw 75 people released back to Ukraine, including some who had been in Russian captivity for more than two years. Ukrainian photographer Kostiantyn Liberov photographed some of the former POWs after the exchange to document what the hunger and stress of imprisonment had done to their bodies. “Right here, right now, we’re seeing the biggest genocide since World War II,” Liberov writes. “These photos are evidence.”
“This was the most difficult shoot we’ve done in the last six months. After meeting and talking with these guys, it took us a week to recover from what we’d seen and heard,” Liberov writes on Instagram.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
“We can’t convey everything we heard from these guys. But these photos speak for themselves. And that’s despite the fact that by the time we met, the guys had been home from a week and had gained 10 kilograms (22 lbs) each. To understand what it means to lose 40–50 kilograms (88–110 lbs), which is the amount they lost during their time in captivity, just look at the pictures of them showing what they looked like before their capture,” Liberov writes.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
“Most of the time, when a person survives captivity, recovery is a gradual process. They spend the initial weeks back on their native soil in a state of euphoria from the realization that they survived,” writes Liberov.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
“Some of these photos were brought to Switzerland for the peace summit, where the idea of an ‘all-for-all’ prisoner swap was discussed. We hope that these documentary portraits of the people who have been through this hell will help our partners act decisively, at least on this issue,” Liberov writes.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
At the start of 2024, Yuriy Taraniuk, a representative of Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said that at least 8,000 people were being held captive by Russia. In June, Vladimir Putin said that Russia had 6,465 Ukrainian soldiers in captivity. Meduza is unable to independently verify these numbers.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
Russia tried but failed to “break” the Ukrainian POWs who returned home in May, according to Liberov. “Each of them repeated this: ‘They didn’t break me,’” he stresses.
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images
“We must do everything possible to ensure this doesn’t happen to others,” Liberov recounts one of the former POWs saying to him. He adds: “But it continues to happen — every day. Many of our people remain in Russian captivity. There’s no end to it.”
Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / Getty Images