A Ukrainian journalist whose YouTube channel became a conduit between Russian prisoners of war and their families back home - interviews that double as information warfare, each uploaded clip both a window into capture and a counter to Moscow's narrative.
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About this person
Volodymyr Zolkin, born 1981 and based in Kyiv, was a journalist and activist before the 2022 Russian invasion gave him an unexpected beat. On 18 March 2022 he began filming interviews with Russian POWs, each session starting with recorded consent and moving through military background, the circumstances of capture, and thoughts on the war itself. The prisoners call home on camera. The logic: mothers might believe their own sons about what's happening in Ukraine when they won't believe anyone else. Beyond the interviews, Zolkin independently telephones Russian families with news of deployed or missing soldiers, matching requests from a service called Look for Your Own against footage from the front. Western media praised the work widely; lawyers noted possible Geneva Convention violations for displaying prisoners online. Zolkin disagreed with the charge.
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