About three thousand Ukrainian prisoners were deported to Russia from the occupied Ukrainian territories in the fall of 2022. Among them are Ruslan, Volodymyr, and Yuriy, who were serving sentences for thefts in prisons in the Kherson region. They had only a few months left before being released. They wrote applications to defend Ukraine from the beginning of the full-scale war. But they were not released from prison. Thus, the men were captured.
Then they were illegally taken to the Russian Federation, where they served their sentences under the decision of Ukrainian courts. They were beaten, offered Russian passports, and agitated to go to war for Russia. When the ex-convicts refused, they were deported without documents to the Russian-Georgian border, where they were stuck for months waiting to return to Ukraine.
How many convicts are still in deportation? How are Ukrainians trying to return to their homeland, crossing Georgia? And are they ready to go to defend their homeland?
Author: Mariana Sych
Director: Nazar Pytel
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