Ukraine Prayer # 490

​Ira Kapitonova
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Psalm 118:25
Usually, a few days after a POW swap, we get to read more personal accounts of what life in Russian captivity looks like. Those stories stun me. For example, a man from a remote mountainous village in the west of Ukraine was tortured for not knowing the Russian language and speaking his heavy dialect of Ukrainian. Many of them have developed chronic illnesses because of malnutrition and harsh conditions they had to live in for almost two years.
 
Among those taken captive by the Ukrainian army, there are a few people from the other side of the world – Sierra Leone, Somali, Cuba, India, Malaysia, and Nepal. All of them were recruited by the Russians and promised good money ($2,000 a month) and Russian citizenship. It's easy to make promises when you are not going to keep them because you count on your recruits becoming cannon fodder.
Lord, have mercy and give us success!

Today's picture – this is Volodymyr Tsema-Bursov's "before and after" pictures. He lost 38 kilograms (84 pounds) after 20 months of Russian captivity. His weight went from 95 (209 pounds) to 57 kilograms (125 pounds). Imagine his present-day photo in black and white and without the caption. Would you be able to discern it among the pictures from Nazi concentration camps? Would you believe that this picture is from 2024, not 1945? Photo by Svoi.City.