Volodymyr Srebrodolskyy, a Ukrainian soldier with gray hair and deep wrinkles, smoked a cigarette while speaking to his Russian captor behind the camera.
asserted
Srebrodolskyy → smoke → camera
“I don’t want to go back there,” Srebrodolskyy said, appearing to have turned against his country.
asserted
Srebrodolskyy → want → country
“It would be good if all of this ended quickly.”
asserted
all → end → this
Weeks before it was posted on Telegram, Srebrodolskyy was fighting for Ukraine on the eastern front line against the men who captured him.
asserted
who → post → him
Now, he was following their script.
asserted
he → follow → script
The propaganda worked.
asserted
propaganda → work → ?
Arguments over whether Srebrodolskyy betrayed his country tore apart his hometown of Karpylivka, a village of 500 nestled in the golden wheat fields of Ukraine’s Chernihiv region.
asserted
Srebrodolskyy → betray → region
Some labeled him a traitor.
asserted
Some → label → him
“He’s smoking a cigarette, saying he won’t return to Ukraine,” said Nina Bedko, 68, who stopped to chat with other women along Karpylivka’s main street.
asserted
who → smoke → street
“That’s why people got that impression.”
asserted
people → ’ → impression
Srebrodolskyy died in captivity weeks after the video was shared.
asserted
video → die → captivity
When his body was ready for burial this spring, some of his neighbors — believing the propaganda — threatened violence against the village mayor if he allowed Srebrodolskyy to be placed in the town’s cemetery.
asserted
Srebrodolskyy → believe → cemetery
Others defended him, saying he went to war willingly, without trying to evade the draft.
asserted
he → defend → draft
“Maybe they promised him mountains of gold,” said his cousin, Lidia Kovalenko, a short 82-year-old woman with a bright smile.
asserted
cousin → promise → smile
“At least they could have buried him near his mother.”
uncertain
they → bury → mother
The arguments put the fate of his body in limbo.
asserted
arguments → put → limbo
Thousands of such videos have been posted to Russian social media channels, some of them airing on state-run television.
asserted
some → post → television
They follow a formula: Ukrainian prisoners decry their commanders, decline to return home, denounce corruption and say they hope for the war to end soon.
asserted
war → follow → corruption
The message has been repeated since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 with few variations, reinforcing Russian narratives about the country it invaded and seeding distrust toward the army in Ukrainian communities.
asserted
it → repeat → communities
A system of abuse
Human rights organizations have called on Russia to stop broadcasting videos of prisoners of war since the early days of the full-scale invasion.
asserted
organizations → call → invasion
“The obligation under the Geneva Conventions is to protect POWs from being objects of public curiosity, as well as from intimidation or humiliation,” Aisling Reidy, senior legal adviser at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement at the time.
asserted
Reidy → protect → time
The videos are recorded inside a detention system the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine has found to be systematically abusive — sustained in part by “dehumanizing language in state-owned media.”
asserted
Mission → record → media
In interviews with more than 850 Ukrainian prisoners of war conducted by the U.N., 96% said they endured torture or mistreatment, including beatings, electric shocks to the genitals, sleep deprivation and mock executions.
asserted
they → conduct → genitals
The abuse can last for years, the report says.
asserted
report → last → years
Over half of Russian prisoners of war have also reported mistreatment to U.N. investigators, saying it took place at the point of capture.
asserted
it → report → capture
Russian prisoners have been made to film similar videos, which the U.N. has condemned.
asserted
U.N. → make → which
However, unlike Russia, Ukraine allows monitoring groups unhindered access to the facilities holding the prisoners, which the U.N. says are compliant with the Geneva Conventions.
asserted
U.N. → allow → Conventions
The Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian nonprofit, has documented 240 detention facilities holding Ukrainians on occupied and Russian territory.
asserted
Initiative → document → territory
“The more of these videos they record, the more they will give power to their ideas,” said Olena Belyachkova, whose work at MIHR focuses on the imprisoned and the missing.
asserted
work → record → imprisoned
Her own husband endured Russian captivity from 2015 to 2017.
asserted
husband → endure → 2017
In some cases, Russia has used propaganda videos as evidence to prosecute Ukrainian prisoners.
asserted
Russia → use → prisoners
Belyachkova said that in the absence of an official Russian accounting, the videos can serve as proof of a soldier’s status as a prisoner of war.
asserted
videos → say → war
Because they are frequently deleted from social media, the exact number of such videos cannot be quantified, but they number in the thousands, she said.
asserted
she → delete → thousands
When Vasylyna Duman saw a video online of her husband, Yevhen Shybalov, from Russian captivity, her first reaction was to keep it secret.
asserted
reaction → see → it
She worried that a media storm would raise the price Russia would ask to exchange him.
asserted
Russia → worry → him
This was the first time she saw his face in months.
asserted
she → see → months
Shybalov volunteered to fight on the first day of the invasion.
asserted
Shybalov → volunteer → invasion
Russians captured him in May 2022.
uncertain
Russians → capture → May
In the video, he was thin and bore signs of beatings, she said.
asserted
she → bear → beatings
She filed a police report using the video as evidence of his captivity.
asserted
She → file → captivity
…and 115 more, not listed.
The Aporia
