Inside Russia’s new gulag: what The New Yorker found in a Rostov cell of Ukrainian women

Since 2014 — and especially since 2022 — Russia has seized and still holds at least 1,878 Ukrainian civilians.

These are only the confirmed cases; the real number is likely far higher.

At least 223 of them are women.

Like Ukrainian prisoners of war, many civilian hostages from Ukraine have been tortured and are held in inhumane conditions.

But unlike military prisoners, they have little hope of going free in an exchange.

Ukraine, citing the Geneva Conventions, insists they should never have been detained at all.

Russia points to rulings from its own courts and says they are serving sentences for terrorism, treason, and other serious crimes.

The two sides do not trade military prisoners for civilians, which leaves the return of these detainees unresolved.