"Everything Will Be Fine."

"Everything Will Be Fine."—these were the words Ukrainian soldier Serhiy Hryhoriev repeated every time he called his family from the front. His younger daughter Oksana even got a tattoo of the phrase to hold on to hope. Even when he was captured by Russian forces in 2022, his loved ones believed he would survive. But a year later, Hryhoriev came home in a body bag. According to the Russian death certificate, he died of a stroke. However, an autopsy in Ukraine told a different story: massive blood loss from abdominal trauma and a ruptured spleen.

Hryhoriev’s case is just one of more than 200 deaths of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian custody since the start of the full-scale invasion. The Associated Press spoke with families of 21 of the deceased and documented numerous instances where prison conditions, torture, and lack of medical care may have led to their deaths. As forensic expert Inna Padey in Kyiv put it: "Under normal, humane conditions, these cases would not have been fatal."

Hryhoriev had served in the Ukrainian army since 2019. He was encircled in Mariupol and taken prisoner in April 2022. The Red Cross confirmed his status as a prisoner of war, and his family found some reassurance. Later, they received a letter in which he wrote: "I’m alive and well. Everything will be fine." But a video circulating on social media—showing an emaciated man with missing teeth—shook that confidence. His daughter believed it was him.

Oleksii Honcharov, a former detainee who was held with him at a penal colony in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, described systematic abuse. According to him, everyone was beaten—without exception. He himself contracted tuberculosis, and requests for medical help only led to further beatings.

Over time, Hryhoriev’s condition deteriorated: he suffered from dizziness, weakness, and lost the ability to walk. Instead of being hospitalized, he was placed in a dark, damp solitary cell. A month later, he died. His family only learned of his death more than six months later.

According to UN data, 95% of released Ukrainian POWs were subjected to torture—ranging from beatings and electric shocks to sexual violence and mock executions. Amnesty International reports widespread human rights violations and notes that Russia systematically denies international organizations access to detention facilities. As a result, families are left in the dark for months, sometimes years.

Ukraine’s forensic service has recorded numerous discrepancies in the official causes of death. Bodies are often returned in a state of advanced decomposition, sometimes with internal organs missing. "They hand over the bodies when nothing can be determined anymore," says Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the state agency on POW affairs.

According to Ukrainian authorities, at least 206 prisoners have died in captivity. Another 245 were executed after surrendering. These numbers continue to rise.

Inna Padey, a forensic pathologist at a Kyiv morgue, works with the bodies of former prisoners. She notes that those killed in combat typically arrive in uniform, with clear battlefield injuries. Former prisoners, by contrast, wear prison clothes and show signs of torture, gangrene, and infections. In one case, a man was found with a fractured skull—likely the result of blunt force trauma, in her view. "Such injuries clearly point to the use of force and torture," she explains.

Her forensic reports, along with testimonies from survivors, will form the basis of war crimes cases that Ukraine is preparing for the International Criminal Court.

Volodymyr Zelensky has emphasized that prisoner exchanges must be part of any future ceasefire negotiations. Another major exchange took place this past weekend. But for many families, it came too late.

Halyna and Yana Hryhorieva, Serhiy’s wife and elder daughter, got matching tattoos like Oksana’s. The phrase he always told them—Everything Will Be Fine—is now inked on their wrists as well.

"Now we have an angel watching over us from the sky," says Halyna. "And we believe: everything really will be fine."