About

Free UA POWs is a public archive of rallies in support of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the missing, abducted civilians, and deported children. Each point on the map is a real demonstration: a city, a date, people who took to the streets to say their loved ones are alive and waiting to come home.

Who stands behind this

The name "FreeAzov" gained wide international recognition after the siege of Azovstal in May 2022, when over 2,500 defenders of Mariupol surrendered into captivity. But the movement has always spoken for everyone — soldiers from all units and branches, civilians taken from occupied towns and villages, and children forcibly taken to Russia.

The first official rally took place in October 2023 at Sophia Square in Kyiv. Since then they have not stopped — every week, across Ukraine and in hundreds of cities around the world. They are organised by families: wives, mothers, children of those who are still not home.

The scale of the problem

As of 2026, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers remain in Russian captivity. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are entered in the state register of missing persons. Russia also holds civilians it took from occupied towns and villages — and there are more of them than anyone has managed to account for. According to official data, thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia.

This is not only about Azovstal and not only about 2022. Russia has still not returned the Ukrainians who went missing back in 2014, at the start of its aggression in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukrainians have been taken captive and have gone missing at every stage of this war — from different units and from every part of the country.

Ukrainians are still in captivity. Captivity is not a way of staying alive. Captivity is death drawn out in torment. Captivity is hell. Do not stay silent. Captivity kills. Silence kills.

Why this map

These rallies have continued for years, but they are easy to miss. The map makes visible what is otherwise scattered: a continuous, structured effort across the whole country and beyond. The archive has genuine historical value — it documents that society did not stay silent.

We do not embellish and we do not simplify. We preserve the facts — so they remain.

How to get involved

If you are organising a rally or know of a demonstration not yet on the map — write to us via the Contact page. Every entry matters.