For Ukraine, for their Freedom and Ours ! - CSO
CAMPAIGN -
Together, let's save the Ukrainian civilian hostages
More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are being illegally detained in Russia. Journalists, elected officials, ordinary citizens—subjected to torture, enforced disappearances, and Russification. They have names. They have families. They must not disappear in the negotiations. For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours!, the Union of Ukrainians in France , the RETURN FREEDOM association, and the Civilni Vilni movement are jointly advocating for the release of Ukrainian civilian hostages to become a prerequisite for any agreement with Moscow.
16,000+
Ukrainian civilians detained
illegally in Russia
Human rights organizations — minimum estimates
Target:
100 cities
mobilised to sponsor
200 hostages by the end of 2026
I
Objective:
3 European
countries
active in municipal sponsorship
France, Belgium, Switzerland
Understanding the issue
The sportocratura
(Estimates from the Center for Civil Liberties; up to 20,000 according to Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets)
A broad typology — Ukrainian civilian hostages are ordinary women and men torn from their lives by the Russian occupation because of their identity or civic engagement:
▸ journalists and media professionals;
▸ teachers and educators who refused to impose Russian curricula;
▸ Mayors and local elected officials removed for exercising their democratic mandate;
▸ athletes and coaches;
▸ parents who refused the Russification of their children;
▸ ordinary citizens attached to their Ukrainian culture and nationality.
Why talk about hostages?
The word "hostage" designates a precise legal qualification under international law. According to the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages (1979) and the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 34), a hostage is a person captured and detained to exert pressure on a third party — a government, a population, an organization — in order to obtain a concession.
This is precisely what Russia has been doing since 2014, and even more so since 2022. Ukrainian civilians are forcibly removed from their homes or abducted from occupied territories not for what they have done, but for what they represent : Ukrainian identity, its memory, its resistance. They are then transported to Russian detention centers, where Moscow uses them as bargaining chips and leverage —to obtain territorial, military, or diplomatic concessions. This practice is precisely the legal definition of a hostage.
Under the Rome Statute (Article 8.2.a.viii), hostage-taking is a war crime . The Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, the Center for Civil Liberties, the OSCE-ODIHR, and the UN Monitoring Mission in Ukraine unanimously use the term "civilian hostages."
A long historical continuity
This policy of eliminating representatives of Ukrainian civil society is part of a historical Russian and Soviet continuity — from the Holodomor (1932-1933), which was preceded by the methodical elimination of the Ukrainian cultural, scientific and religious elite, to the forced disappearances of today in the occupied territories.
The campaign objectives
1. To raise awareness of the situation of the populations in the occupied territories
Breaking the silence surrounding the inhabitants of the oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Crimea — subjected to enforced disappearances, Russification, and daily terror.
2. Bringing civilian hostages out of anonymity
Giving each inmate a name, a face and a story — through municipal sponsorship and public events — so that none are forgotten.
3. Obtain information from Russia about their fate
Demand access for international organizations (ICRC, UN, OSCE) to detention facilities and medical care for prisoners, many of whom are seriously ill or injured.
4. Obtain their release
To mobilize European public opinion and their governments so that the release of civilian hostages becomes a prerequisite for any negotiation with Moscow.
“This campaign is the citizens’ response to a simple question: what can a city do in the face of an imperial war that targets civilians? It can give a name, a face, and a voice to a prisoner locked in silence two thousand kilometers away. It can refuse to be forgotten. One hundred municipalities sponsoring two hundred hostages: this is the beginning of a European civic shield.”
— Sylvie Rollet and Pierre Raiman, president and vice-president of PLU
Campaign News
23 May 2026
ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN LE MONDE
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians detained by Russia: For Ukraine and Ukrainian associations launch a campaign to break the silence
"For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours" joins forces with three Ukrainian organizations, including Return Freedom, to alert Europe to one of the most overlooked war crimes of the conflict: the captivity of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians in the hands of Russia.
21 February 2026
PUBLIC SPEECH
Speech delivered at the annual march in Paris commemorating the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine
At the rally marking the fourth anniversary of the large-scale invasion, Pour l'Ukraine intervened at the forum to bring forward the demands of the Together, let's save the Ukrainian hostages campaign.
18 February 2026
OPINION PIECE PUBLISHED IN LE MONDE
"If we do not want to witness what amounts to a genocidal war against civilians, we must rescue the Ukrainian population as quickly as possible."
Opinion piece co-sponsored by Pour l'Ukraine (Sylvie Rollet and Pierre Raiman) published in Le Monde, signed by Galia Ackerman, Aurélien Duchêne, Nicolas Tenzer, Françoise Thom, Cécile Vaissié, General Michel Yalovleff and dozens of others.
2 February 2026
OPEN LETTER PUBLISHED IN L'EXPRESS
Open letter to the President of the Republic: let humanitarian imperatives become the foundation of all negotiations
Letter co-sponsored by Pour l'Ukraine (Sylvie Rollet) and signed by Bernard-Henri Lévy, Ariane Mnouchkine, Jonathan Littell, Marc Lévy, Stéphane Courtois, Nicolas Werth and about fifty other personalities, published in L'Express under the title "The cry of revolt of 11 French intellectuals".
15 January 2026
EVENING - DEBATE
Evgenia Chirikova: Only one way to stop Russian terror
On January 15, 2026, at the Auditorium of Paris City Hall, an event entitled "What Fate for Civilians in the Occupied Ukrainian Territories?" was held, dedicated to the plight of civilian populations under Russian occupation. It was organized by Desk Russia, with the participation of Pour l'Ukraine.
18 November 2025
OPINION PIECE PUBLISHED IN LE MONDE
"Let's save Anastasia Hloukhovska and the 48 other journalists detained by Russia"
Tribune co-sponsored by Pour l'Ukraine (Pierre Raiman), Reporters sans frontières, the European Federation of Journalists, and personalities such as Nathalie Loiseau, Claude Malhuret, Oleksandra Matviichuk and Nadia Sollogoub.
The national support committee in France
The national support committee lends its support to the "Together Let's Save the Ukrainian Civilian Hostages" campaign. It brings together prominent figures from the academic, literary, artistic, and political spheres, representing all republican viewpoints. Its membership is up to date as of June 29, 2026.
Committee members
ACKERMAN Galia
Historian, editor-in-chief of Desk Russie
ARJAKOVSKY Antoine
Historian, co-director of the Collège des Bernardins
ASSOULINE David
Former Senator for Paris
BAYOU Julien
Lawyer, former Member of Parliament
BOZONNET Marcel
Actor, director, former member and trustee of the Comédie-Française
COHN-BENDIT Daniel
Former Member of the European Parliament
CYRULNIK Boris
Essayist, neuropsychiatrist and psychoanalyst
DAOUD Emmanuel
Lawyer at the International Criminal Court
GARAPON Antoine
Former magistrate
GOUPIL Romain
Filmmaker
JADOT Yannick
Senator for Paris
JODEAU Martine
Solicitor, Honorary Member of the Council of State
KERSAUDY François
Historian, Lecturer at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
LE GRIP Constance
Member of Parliament for Hauts-de-Seine, Vice-Chair of the France-Ukraine Friendship Group
LÉVY Jacques
Winner of the 2018 Vautrin-Lud International Geography Prize
LEVY Marc
Writer
LOISEAU Nathalie
Member of the European Parliament
MELNIK Alexandre
Former Russian diplomat, geopolitical expert and consultant
MINAEV Igor
Film director, Screenwriter and Theatre Director
MNOUCHKINE, Ariane
Theatre director, Director of the Théâtre du Soleil
PASTERNAK Jean-Pierre
President of the Union of Ukrainians in France
PHILIP Thierry
Professor of Medicine specialising in oncology
PHILIP-GAY Mathilde
Executive Director of the Lyon Chair in Human and Environmental Rights, Professor of Public Law at the University of Lyon 3
RABATEL Alain
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Lyon 1
SALAS Denis
Essayist, Honorary Magistrate
SCHNAPPER Dominique
Sociologist, former member of the Constitutional Council
SERVAN-SCHREIBER Fabienne
Producer, Chair of Ciné-TV
SOLLOGOUB Nadia
Senator for Nièvre, Chair of the France-Ukraine Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group
TENZER Nicolas
An expert on international and strategic issues, and author of, amongst other works, Notre Guerre [T.N.: Our War]
THOM Françoise
Historian, specialist in Russian and Soviet history, and author of, amongst other works La guerre totale de Vladimir Poutine [T.N.: Vladimir Putin's Total War]
TOURAINE Jean-Louis
Professor of Medicine specialising in immunology, former Member of Parliament
VAISSIÉ Cécile
University Professor of Russian and Soviet Studies
VÉDRINE Olivier
Political scientist, journalist and trustee of the Jean Monnet Association
WEBER Olivier
Writer, reporter, former war correspondent, roving French ambassador from 2008 to 2013
WERTH Nicolas
Historian, Specialist in the history of the Soviet Union, Research Director at the CNRS, President of Memorial France