It has been three years since the Ukrainian army liberated Buch, a town near Kiev and the site of some of the worst atrocities committed by Russian forces in the early days of the invasion of Ukraine.
However, at least 33 civilians from this Ukrainian city remain in Russian prisons to this day.
Among them is Vladislav Popovich, who was wounded in 2022, during the Bucha massacre when hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war were killed.
His mother, Tetyana Popovich, is not giving up her fight to have him released from Russian prison and returned to Ukraine.
Vladislav was shot in the leg on March 2, 2022, and then disappeared.
"(Russian troops) continued to shoot at them, even though they were on their knees with their hands raised," Tetyana recalls, pointing to the former Russian checkpoint.
Tetjana initially believed that her son had escaped and managed to hide in the yard near their family home. However, she soon realized that he had disappeared.
A few months later, she learned that she was in a Russian prison in Kursk.
After sending an inquiry to the Russian Ministry of Defense, she received confirmation that Vladislav was detained on charges of allegedly resisting a special military operation, as Moscow calls its invasion of Ukraine.
Apart from the letter she received from him in 2023, Tetjana had no contact with her son.
"In isolation"
Human rights organizations and legal experts warn that such moves by Russia constitute war crimes.
Anastasia Panteleeva, from the Media Initiative for Human Rights, says Moscow is violating international law by detaining Popovich. "Civilians cannot be abducted and taken from their own country. All civilians arrested in the northern Ukrainian regions are being held in isolation," she says.
A recent report by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council highlighted that Russia is responsible for the enforced disappearances of Ukrainian civilians, which were "widespread and systematic."
The Ukrainian government continues diplomatic efforts to facilitate the release of its civilians.
Three years after the occupation of Buča, most of the destroyed buildings and infrastructure have been rebuilt.
But for mothers like Tetjana, the fight to free their loved ones from Russian prisons continues.
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