Numerals carved into the wall of a basement by detainees to tell time in a building used by Russian forces as a torture facility, according to a war crimes prosecutor.
(Photo: dpa)
Vienna In Ukraine, Europe is experiencing its biggest conflict since World War II – and the first in the social media era. The daily mass of videos and images from the battlefields is overwhelming.
But it belies the fact that fundamental aspects of war disappear in an information vacuum. This includes the number of prisoners of war, about which there is complete uncertainty.
The only thing that is clear is that there are thousands – if only because Kyiv says it has already brought back 1,400 of its own soldiers as part of exchanges. Such official announcements are extremely rare: In June, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke of 6,500 Ukrainian prisoners of war, while Kyiv only confirmed 2,000. There is no more recent information, although the topic arouses enormous public emotion in both countries.
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