Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine — A message to friends was smuggled from 10 Ukrainian detainees into the Russian-occupied zone last month. The men, among hundreds of other civilian prisoners missing for weeks after the Russian withdrawal from the city of Kherson, said they were alive but in desperate need of help.

“They told us to contact our relatives and tell the media that they were alive,” said Andrey, a former detainee and friend of some of the detainees who, like others interviewed for this article, refused to leave for security reasons. From gave only his first name. “They are being tortured and held without any legal basis.”

The retreat of Russian forces from across eastern and southern Ukraine last fall has raised hopes for many Ukrainians that their detained relatives will be freed and the country’s military will build on that momentum and push into more territory in the region. Will take over from

But the Russian retreat proved orderly to the extent that even prisoners were evacuated, and the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south has largely stalled as heavy fighting has concentrated on the Eastern Front.

Still, for families living in the occupied territories, or whose relatives are detained there, another Ukrainian counteroffensive cannot come soon enough, even if it brings additional risks.

Some people interviewed at a border crossing near the town of Zaporizhzhya – the only entry point for civilians moving from Russian-occupied southern Ukraine to Ukraine’s occupied territory – said they were fleeing heavy bombardment but a sharp return to Ukraine. Victory was expected. The families of those held captive by the Russians were both fearful for their safety and desperate to be rescued.

Ukrainians arriving at a registration center in cars plastered with mud last month described increasingly desperate conditions in the occupied territories, including frequent shelling, loud explosions at night from long-range Ukrainian attacks, and lack of electricity and Life medic on war footing with power outages.

“It’s impossible to live there,” said Lyubov, 81, who waited with his daughter at the registration center in Zaporizhia for transport to the capital, Kyiv. Her apartment in the city of Mariupol had been destroyed, she said, and health care was scant.

A family came from Nova Kakhovka, a town on the east bank of the Dnipro River north of the city of Kherson, which said it was half destroyed by artillery fire from both sides. “It was flying over our heads,” said Oleh, 60.

There is no doubt that the Ukrainian military would like to drive south deeper into Russian-held territory and towards Crimea, and pressure is building to launch such an operation.

Military analysts generally agree that while Ukraine is on the defensive for now, its next important strategic objective is a renewed southern offensive to cut off Russia’s supply and communications routes in Crimea.

“I have always said that Zaporizhia is the most strategic direction. It is the Zaporizhzhia direction that can turn the tide of the war,” said Colonel Roman Kostenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and a former commander in Alpha, a Ukrainian special operations force.

An offensive south from Zaporizhia towards the Russian-held cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk would split the Russian army and weaken its hold on Crimea, he said. But he cautioned that he does not expect any advance until spring, and even then when Ukraine receives additional aid from the West in modern tanks, armored fighting vehicles and guns, some of which are now being promised.

Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of US forces in Europe, said attacks on Ukraine’s Melitopol, a logistics hub, and the Kerch Strait bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia had already shown Russian vulnerabilities in Crimea.

“If the two main lines of communication are already damaged or could be disrupted, Crimea starts to look more and more like a trap,” Gen. Hodges said in a recent interview on Twitter Space. maria reportA popular pro-Ukraine open source forum.

But both military analysts warn that a southern offensive would be more difficult than counter-offensives in the northeast and south. And residents traveling outside the region said the number of Russian troops in southern Ukraine had risen significantly in recent weeks, with the arrival of troops retreating from western Kherson, among others from the Russian mainland. have become Ukrainian and US officials have said that Russian forces have been building defensive positions from the front line to the rear in recent weeks.

For Ukrainian citizens, travel was difficult as well, hampered by long delays and security checks at Russian checkpoints. A bridge near the crossing point was destroyed in the fighting, forcing volunteers from the local fire department to tow cars through deep mud along an alternate route.

She said it took two days for Lyudmila, 49, and a friend to escape from the occupied part of the Kherson region, where they were visiting their parents. She said her parents wanted to leave but were not prepared for the arduous journey.

The two women spent a night in the town of Melitopol, where they heard Ukrainian strikes landing nearby. “It was loud; It was close,” she said.

Many civilians said that Russian troops were digging new lines of fortifications, setting up concrete barriers and laying landmines, but there were also indications that they were not confident of their position.

“I have the impression they don’t know what they’re doing,” Luba, a 69-year-old retired businessman, said of the Russian soldiers. “Maybe because I rarely see them sober, it’s impossible to talk to them.”

He said a school in the Kherson region, where Russian soldiers were stationed near his home, was targeted with artillery, killing hundreds of soldiers. And when she reprimanded a Ukrainian acquaintance for befriending a group of Russian soldiers, she told him that the soldiers had said they wanted to surrender to Ukrainian forces when they reached the city.

The families of two detainees who smuggled their messages spoke to The New York Times to plead for action to save their relatives. He added that the Russians had possibly taken the captives with them to use as human shields or as hostages for exchange.

“I can’t think or feel anything because it’s such a mess,” said Victoria Nesterenko, 53, whose son Vitaly Cherkashin is one of 10 detainees.

He said the men were being held in the town of Novotroitske in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region. She was concerned about the Ukrainian artillery attacks, especially when she heard there was a strike in the town where they were being conducted.

“I hope they’re in some kind of basement cell,” she said.

She called for the men to be included in the prisoner exchange, but complained that the Ukrainian government was focused on the release of military prisoners of war and paid little attention to the plight of civilians.

“I don’t know what to do, but we must not remain silent,” she said.

“I’m really hoping they have to back down,” said Anna Trubich, 24, whose boyfriend, Vladislav Andryushchenko, 27, is one of the 10 detainees. He received a photo along with the message. “He changed a lot,” she said. “I was shocked.”