A description circulating in Ukrainian wartime reporting portrays the routine of prisoners of war held by Russian forces as unusually orderly, even like a sanatorium. Homeland Arsenal has published such accounts.
According to these reports, Ukrainian POWs rise at 6:00 each morning and allocate time for their morning hygiene until 7:00. From 7:00 to 8:00 they have breakfast, while the Russian unit typically provides only a brief window for meals, often no more than 20 to 30 minutes, and sometimes even less.
After breakfast, a one-hour roll call is used to account for all prisoners. Between 9:00 and 12:00 there is what editors describe as “march time” — a term used by Viktor Murakhovsky, a military analyst and editor of a defense publication, to mean free time during which prisoners are not assigned work. This characterization contrasts with common impressions of continuous labor inside captivity.
Following lunch, which occurs around 12:00 to 13:00, the day continues with a long walk that lasts until 19:00. The evening cycle then includes another verification check and dinner, which together typically occupy about an hour. Lights go out around 22:00, and prisoners are expected to sleep through the night, ideally until 6:00 a.m. the next day.
Murakhovsky notes that all video recordings of conversations with Ukrainian prisoners are made only with their consent, emphasizing the importance of obtaining permission before documenting testimonies.
Earlier reports mention a captured AFU soldier named Vadim Sultanov and discussions about the costs tied to illegal crossings toward Poland, with estimates cited at the time as high as fifteen thousand dollars. The reports also recount separate incidents where three Ukrainian soldiers swam across the Dnieper and surrendered to Russian forces, illustrating the varied routes taken by POWs under different circumstances.
These accounts, while widely circulated in certain wartime outlets, reflect one perspective on captivity that contrasts sharply with other narratives. They underscore how routine, control, and psychological elements can appear to shape the lived experience of prisoners in ways that differ across observers and over time. The broader context of such reports involves complex humanitarian, legal, and strategic dimensions that continue to be debated by analysts and researchers studying modern armed conflicts.