About

Free UA POWs is a volunteer-run map and archive of events in support of Ukrainian prisoners of war and the missing: rallies, car rallies, performances, exhibitions and more. We also collect events in support of civilians and children abducted, deported or unlawfully held by Russia. We bring their photos and video together on one map, to keep in history the Ukrainian people's fight for their own, to remind the world once more of the horrors Russia brings, and to be the voice of those who have none now — until everyone is home.

How the rallies began

The mothers of Mariupol's defenders began them. On 19 April 2022, while the garrison was still holding out, about ten women gathered for the first rally in Kyiv. In May the garrison, on orders from the command, came out of Azovstal and was taken captive, and the families were asked to stay silent so as not to harm the prisoners. For the next year and a half rallies were occasional and tied to dates: after the Olenivka massacre, on the anniversary of the exit from Azovstal, on the 500th day of captivity.

In late 2023, when Russia blocked the already rare exchanges, though Ukraine had prisoners to exchange, the families stopped staying silent: the first weekly rally took place on 3 December 2023, under the slogan «Не мовчи! Полон вбиває!» ("Don't be silent! Captivity kills!"). Since then rallies have been held every week in towns across Ukraine: every Sunday in Kyiv, on Saturdays or Sundays elsewhere.

They are called reminder rallies for prisoners of war and the missing (or rallies in support of them), or simply Free Azov — the slogan with which the families speak to the world. Despite the name, people come out not only for Azov but for every captive and missing defender of Ukraine, women and men.

Most are organized by families — the Association of Families of Azovstal Defenders and many local and brigade groups. But it is not only relatives who come: so do engaged citizens, people who care and have no one in captivity, and often they are the majority. Asked "Who of yours is in captivity?", people here often answer: "All of them." They wait and fight for all of their own. These are peaceful reminders: to Ukrainian society, to the Ukrainian state and to the world.

Who this is about

According to the President, Russia holds about 7,000 Ukrainian soldiers captive (February 2026), and more than 114,000 people, soldiers and civilians, are listed as missing (National Police, July 2026). The UN has found that Russia tortures Ukrainian prisoners of war in a widespread and systematic way, and that this is a coordinated state policy. Russia gives UN monitors no access to them, and over these years the Red Cross has seen only a few of them — rarely, under the Russian authorities' control, and not once since 2024. Ukraine treats the prisoners it holds humanely: its camps are open to the UN and the Red Cross.

And Russia keeps people for years. The defenders of Azovstal came out into captivity in May 2022 with the promise of a return within 3–4 months; more than 4 years later, hundreds of them are still held. Russia has sentenced or charged more than 2,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war, many of them as "terrorists" (the Ombudsman, June 2026), and those convicted cannot be exchanged like the others.

Russia also holds civilians — abducted in occupied towns and villages, at checkpoints, during "filtration". The Ombudsman counts 1,878 confirmed cases and estimates that about 16,000 civilians may be held (June 2026). According to the Children of War portal, more than 20,000 Ukrainian children have been deported or forcibly displaced by Russia, which tries to erase their Ukrainian identity with new names, Russian passports and "re-education"; 2,689 have been brought back (October 2026). Some Ukrainians, soldiers and civilians, have been held since 2014.

Why this archive

In captivity, people are cut off from home: hardly any letters or calls to their families, no news from Ukraine. What they hear is what their guards and Russian propaganda tell them: that no one needs them, that they have been forgotten at home and that no one will exchange them — constant psychological pressure, on top of the physical violence. The truth from outside arrives only with newly captured prisoners — and for those held since 2022, when the movement was only beginning, each such piece of news is a little hope. The rallies answer the silence. Andrii, a defender of Azovstal freed in 2026, recalls (our translation from Ukrainian): "People stood along the road with flags. I wanted to cry because I understood — we had been waited for."

"That wall of propaganda is easy to break, precisely by showing photos from the rallies," says Dmytro Kozatskyi, a defender of Azovstal who came home from captivity. That is why the archive gathers these events so that:

• the fight for prisoners of war and the missing is kept in history;
• the world sees it: Russia's unprovoked and unjustified aggression goes on, and thousands of Ukrainians are still in captivity, where they are tortured and killed;
• more people become the voice of the captives and join the fight to bring them home;
• civilians and children abducted and unlawfully held by Russia are remembered too;
• those who come home see how they were waited for.

It cannot speed up exchanges, and we don't claim it can. But it documents what matters most: Ukrainians remember their own and fight for them.

Who keeps the archive

Free UA POWs is a volunteer initiative from Lviv. We don't organize events — we document them. We collect photographs and video from photographers, organizers and participants, with their permission. Every item is checked and selected before it is published.

We work with the support of the rally organizers in Lviv. The archive is non-commercial: we show no advertising, sell nothing and raise no money for ourselves. The one thing we ask is that you support Ukraine's defenders.

How to help

Do you have photographs or video of rallies, recent ones or from any time since 2022? Share them: the authorship stays yours, and we'll credit you as you choose (a name, a pseudonym, a link, or anonymously). If you know of an event that is missing from the map, or spot a mistake, write to us — every way to reach us is on the Contact page. Share the map and talk about the rallies: the more people know about them, the harder it is for the world to get used to captivity. We also invite you to come to a rally in your own town and stand with them.