Families of prisoners of war, detained civilians, and missing persons are under special attention from Russian intelligence services. Russians cynically exploit the feelings of people who seek to obtain information about their loved ones and bring them home. The enemy exploits human vulnerability and attempts to use this sensitive topic not only for conducting information operations, but also for recruiting Ukrainian citizens and involving them in sabotage activities. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security and Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War explains the common influence schemes and the purposes for which the enemy uses them.
Why Russians Hunt Relatives of Missing Persons and Prisoners
RF intelligence services attempt to establish contact with relatives of both Ukrainian servicemen in captivity and civilian citizens whom the occupiers have deprived of freedom.
The enemy’s interest in such contacts is influenced by a person’s vulnerable emotional state and the predictability of their desires and feelings. Using manipulation, blackmail, and other methods of psychological pressure, intelligence services attempt to influence the victim’s behavior, motivation, and even worldview.
READ ALSO: Fraudsters try to manipulate relatives of prisoners and missing persons. The Center warns about malicious activity on Facebook
What Tools Do Russians Use
To spread destructive messages and calls to action, Russians use various tools, including:
Videos on TikTok and other platforms with manipulations on the topic of prisoners, missing persons and the deceased, exchanges, payments, etc.;
Interference in chats where relatives of prisoners and missing persons communicate;
Telegram channels dedicated to searching for missing persons;
Establishing personal contacts with relatives of prisoners and missing persons.
For example, the repatriation of bodies of the deceased in June 2025 was accompanied by an information operation by RF intelligence services. Among its components were:
Distribution by bot networks of TikTok videos claiming Ukraine’s “unwillingness” to take back bodies of the deceased
Posting on TikTok of nearly 10,000 videos with accusations against the Ukrainian state, which “sent a person to war” and now “doesn’t want to take back the body”;
Spreading manipulations and accusations against Ukrainian authorities by blogger-defectors;
Spreading calls to relatives of prisoners, missing persons, and the deceased to participate in protest actions in Kyiv;
Spreading AI-generated deepfake video addresses by Ukrainian military personnel, including commander of the 3rd Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Biletsky and People’s Deputy Yulia Tymoshenko;
Organizing provocations with bodies of the deceased in Russian border areas and their information support.
Involving blogger-defectors in information special operations
Russians do not shy away from using prisoners for propaganda purposes. Ukrainian servicemen are forced to “confess to crimes” on video, reproduce messages of Russian military propaganda about “Ukrainian Nazism,” “Zelensky’s criminal regime,” “butcher commanders,” “Western puppet masters,” “one people,” etc.
Propaganda content created with the involvement of prisoners of war
To spread content created with prisoner participation, propaganda resources are involved, including federal media, as well as an ecosystem of TikTok, YouTube, Telegram channels and Telegram chats. Some of these channels and chats focus specifically on the topic of searching for prisoners and missing persons, while others mimic Ukrainian resources and are conducted in Ukrainian.
Such chats and channels hunt for target audiences with promises of the possibility of obtaining information about the fate of a missing person, familiarizing themselves with lists of prisoners, including those being prepared for exchange. During communication in chats, they attempt to obtain personal data and other information of interest to Russian intelligence from relatives of servicemen.
READ ALSO: Investigation: How Russia Used a Body Repatriation Agreement to Launch a Large Scale Disinformation Operation
Enemy intelligence services can obtain initial information by monitoring social networks where Ukrainians post announcements about searching for their relatives.
Russians blackmail prisoners with the possibility of communicating with relatives. The price of a call may be an obligation to claim in conversation with a loved one that Russians are allegedly “ready for exchange” while the Ukrainian side “refuses,” as well as calling on relatives to participate in protests.
Relatives of prisoners are pressured with threats of torture, murder, or blocking the exchange of their loved ones.
Russians may pose as Ukrainians, representatives of government bodies or intelligence services. Fraudsters who attempt to seize funds from relatives of prisoners, missing persons, and deceased military personnel also resort to similar methods.
READ ALSO: How Fraudsters Hunt Relatives of Prisoners of War and Missing Persons
What Enemy Intelligence Services Seek
Russians cynically use the topic of prisoners of war, missing persons, and the deceased both to influence Ukrainian society as a whole and for targeted work with specific groups. The enemy works to form a virtual reality in which:
The blame for the death of Ukrainian military and civilians, for the suffering of prisoners lies with the Ukrainian authorities;
The responsibility for the war starting and not ending rests with Ukraine;
Ukraine does not want to take back its own citizens from Russian captivity, return bodies of the deceased, and hides the truth from citizens, including from relatives of prisoners, missing persons, and the deceased;
Ukrainian authorities divide military personnel into “categories” and try to primarily liberate some from captivity while not being interested in freeing others;
Ukrainian authorities “profit from the war” and therefore are not interested in ending it and ignore peace initiatives from other states.
Systematic promotion of such messages aims to:
Form “Stockholm syndrome” in Ukrainians – a psychological reaction to a traumatic event that includes justifying the aggressor’s actions;
Destroy citizens’ trust in Ukrainian state institutions and in each other;
Weaken the resilience of Ukrainian society through demoralization, disorientation, and destruction of horizontal connections;
Weaken Ukraine’s defense capability through discrediting and disrupting mobilization.
READ ALSO: “Total Vacuum”: Journalist Dmytro Khylyuk Released from Captivity Describes Conditions in Russian Captivity
The adversary seeks for Ukrainians to begin perceiving their own state with hostility, considering it (rather than the aggressor) as the main source of threat, directing their anger and hatred toward it.
Calls for relatives of prisoners, missing persons, and prisoners to participate in anti-government actions during repatriation in June 2025
Relatives of prisoners, missing persons, and the deceased, like all citizens of Ukraine, may be targets of manipulation and recruitment by Russian intelligence services. The enemy seeks to influence the views and behavior of Ukrainians, specifically to:
Convince them that their enemy is their own state;
Obtain information needed by Russian intelligence;
Involve them in spreading propaganda content (including through confidence that this will help free someone from captivity);
Persuade them to participate in protest actions;
Recruit them for carrying out sabotage.
The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security reminds:
The Ukrainian state makes efforts to free every military and civilian from captivity, return home the body of every deceased person, and does not divide defenders into “categories”;
Verified information about prisoner exchanges and repatriation of bodies of the deceased is published on official resources of the President of Ukraine and the Coordination Headquarters for Prisoner of War Affairs;
Prisoner exchange and body repatriation is a very delicate topic; preparation for each exchange is not public;
The President of Ukraine, the Coordination Headquarters, Ukrainian intelligence services involved in exchanges, and other government bodies do not suggest subscribing to anonymous Telegram channels where one can allegedly see lists of the deceased, prisoners, or those released from captivity;
The Coordination Headquarters directly informs a military person’s relatives about their return from captivity;
Identification of the deceased after body return occurs according to a regulated procedure that includes DNA testing.
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