Analyst: Russia Has Turned Ukrainian Civilians in Occupied Areas Into Hostages
Andreas Umland, an analyst at a Swedish foreign policy institute, writes in an opinion column that Russia systematically detains Ukrainian civilians and does not release them. He cites about 16,000 adult civilian prisoners and proposes several remedies.
Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies (SCEEUS) of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), argues in a column for the Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda that Russia holds thousands of Ukrainian civilians, both in occupied areas and inside Russia, and effectively uses them as hostages. The piece is an opinion column, based on a longer EPIK policy brief.
How many are detained
Exact figures are unknown because Moscow conceals data and denies the International Committee of the Red Cross access to detainees. Ukraine's list of missing persons contains more than 70,000 people, both military and civilian. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has confirmed about 1,800 civilians in custody, but keeps a separate list of more than 16,000. Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has identified 15,250 civilians held by Russia between February 2022 and August 2025.
A monitoring report by the Center for Civil Liberties and the German NGO Austausch concludes that this is systematic state policy: detainees are held without charges, often incommunicado, and subjected to torture. Three quarters of detainees' families do not know where their relatives are. Among 216 released civilians interviewed by the UN human rights office, over 92% gave consistent, detailed accounts of cruel treatment.
Why it happens
Umland says the mass detentions serve three purposes: removing people who resist or might resist, intimidating the wider population, and creating a pool of exchange material. From March 2022 to May 2025, only 173 civilians returned home through exchanges.
Proposed remedies
The Center for Civil Liberties recommends a national register of detained civilians, stronger monitoring, documentation of torture, a case at the UN International Court of Justice, sanctions, and prosecution of those responsible. The author adds calls for more parliamentary resolutions, greater media attention, pressure on the Red Cross, and Western countries' possible buyouts of individual prisoners.
