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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Shaun Walker in Kyiv

‘It’s the time you’re meant to be with your family’: the continuing plight of Ukrainian PoWs

Valeria Subotina poses in front of a banner reading 'Azovstal - Free Mariupol Defenders'
Valeria Subotina, a former PoW from the Azov battalion, poses in front of a banner on the Kyiv city council building. Photograph: Julia Kochetova

In a small apartment in a high-rise block on Kyiv’s left bank, 50-year-old Natalia struggled to remain composed as she contemplated spending a second New Year’s Eve without her son Artem.

“It’s the time when you’re meant to be with your family and this is going to be the second year without him, unless there is a miracle. I’m looking towards the holiday period with fear,” she said.

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