How Russia blackmails the desperate families of Ukrainian POWs

Karina Remez knew her husband — 33-year-old Dmytro Remez — had been captured in 2022 while defending Mariupol. For years, there was no confirmed information about where he was being held. Then, in early February 2025, a man contacted her claiming he had shared a cell with Dmytro and had personal information to pass on.

The initial questions soon escalated into direct blackmail. They demanded that she blow up a communications tower and provide Ukrainian military locations.

To pressure her, they forced Dmytro to speak to her on the phone. During later calls, they spoke to her themselves with sounds of torture in the background.

. . .

Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, says this is a deliberate Russian strategy aimed at destabilizing Ukraine that has only escalated and become increasingly cruel during four years of full-scale war.

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