Mothers of missing soldiers desperate

ALL Lyubov Brodovska wanted from the Ukrainian soldiers just freed in a prisoner exchange with Russia was for one to give a sign that her missing son was alive.

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Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are officially designated missing - neither confirmed killed or captured by the Russians — leaving families in a nightmarish limbo.

“If someone just said, ‘I saw your son.’ Just one word. I would carry them in my arms and kiss them,” she said.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she held up a photo of 28-year-old Oleksandr, who went missing while fighting at the front last year.

Brodovska is one of hundreds of mothers, wives and other relatives that flock to prisoner exchanges, desperate for a sliver of information from those leaving Russian captivity as to the whereabouts of their loved one.