The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Asman reported on September 9, 2026, that he continues to work for the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war and is trying to use his contacts in Washington, Israel, and the Jewish world for this purpose. A few weeks ago, at the Central Synagogue of Ukraine in Kyiv, he met with representatives of the public organization “Voyatsky Vyzvil,” created by the families of prisoners of war and missing defenders of Mariupol and “Azovstal.”
Author: Alexander Khmelnitsky
Asman is currently in the USA. And there is an important detail in his message that is easy to lose behind words about prayers and family support: he speaks specifically about trying to bring the issue of prisoners to where there are people capable of influencing decisions. Not just to tell once again about captivity, but to involve political, public, and Jewish contacts outside Ukraine in this story.
The rabbi himself formulates everything much more simply: behind every prisoner, there is a family that has been waiting for months, and some have been waiting since 2022. Many Ukrainian soldiers have indeed returned as a result of exchanges during this time. But hundreds of Mariupol defenders remain in Russian prisons and colonies for the fourth year.
And here the story stops being just another meeting of the rabbi with a public organization.
“Voyatsky Vyzvil”: families who went from pickets to Washington and Geneva
The public organization “Voyatsky Vyzvil” was created by relatives of Ukrainian servicemen who were captured or went missing after the battles for Mariupol. The organization works with the families of the city’s defenders, military unit 3057, and the Azov brigade, engages in finding information about people, legal support, international advocacy, and support for those who have returned from captivity.
Over four years, their work has changed significantly. Initially, families literally had to fight to at least be informed about where their husbands, sons, and daughters were. Then there were appeals, public actions, work with the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters. Now this campaign is increasingly reaching the international level.
In June 2026, representatives of “Voyatsky Vyzvil” worked on several such platforms at once. In The Hague, the head of the organization, Natalia Epifanova, participated in an event of the International Commission on Missing Persons — ICMP. Almost simultaneously, Natalia Kravtsova, the mother of a captured Azov fighter, participated in a conversation with the leadership of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
And on August 25, an American line appeared: a representative of the organization participated in a meeting with US Senator Richard Blumenthal. They talked about the return of Ukrainian prisoners of war, their conditions of detention, and the need to increase pressure on Russia.
That is, Washington appeared in this story even before the current statement by Moshe Asman. He is not starting the campaign from scratch. Rather, he is adding his own doors to the already existing network, which he can try to open.
That is why NANovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency considers the current statement not as a religious gesture of support. Here a very specific chain arises: families of prisoners — Ukrainian structures — international organizations — American politicians — Asman’s contacts in the USA, Israel, and among Jewish organizations.
700 in May and more than 600 in August — these are not different versions of the story
With the numbers of prisoners here, one must be especially careful. On May 19, 2026, at a press conference “Symbolic Prisoners of War: How to Return the Fighters of the Azov Brigade from Russian Captivity,” representatives of “Voyatsky Vyzvil” spoke of more than 700 servicemen of the unit who continued to be in Russian captivity.
But after that, exchanges continued. And on August 19, the commander of the 1st Corps of the National Guard “Azov” Denis Prokopenko reported already about more than 600 Azov fighters remaining in captivity.
This is an important clarification. You cannot take the 700 from May and present them as today’s figure, but you also cannot pretend that the problem has sharply decreased. Even after subsequent exchanges, it is still about hundreds of people.
The exchange on August 19 is particularly indicative. At that time, 103 servicemen returned to Ukraine, but according to Prokopenko, there was not a single Azov fighter among them, nor any National Guard servicemen who defended Mariupol.
Prokopenko then said something quite unpleasant: the existing strategy for returning this category of prisoners is exhausted, and Ukraine needs to look for other approaches.
A few weeks later, Asman talks about such an additional approach — using people and connections outside the usual negotiation circuit.
Why it is so difficult to return the defenders of Azovstal
For the Israeli reader, a small explanation is needed here. In the spring of 2022, the Ukrainian garrison held the surrounded Mariupol for several months, and the last major stronghold of resistance was the Azovstal metallurgical plant. Military and civilians were in its underground facilities. In May, the defenders of the enterprise ceased resistance by order of the Ukrainian command and went into captivity.
Among them were servicemen of different units, but “Azov” had long held a separate significance for Russian propaganda. This name has been used for years as one of the central elements of the Russian narrative about the supposedly necessary “denazification” of Ukraine. Therefore, Azov members became for Moscow not just part of the general pool of prisoners of war.
In May, relatives therefore called them “symbolic prisoners of war.”
Russia further complicated the mechanism of return by starting to conduct its own criminal processes over captured Ukrainian servicemen. Hundreds of fighters received various “sentences” in the Russian Federation. As a result, a person who, from the point of view of international humanitarian law, was captured as a combatant, within the Russian system, also becomes convicted in a criminal case.
This is no longer just a question of “who was included in the next list.” Moscow receives an additional tool for holding people and exerting pressure in negotiations.
Olenivka — the reason why families have long not believed in mere promises
There is also Olenivka.
After leaving Azovstal, some prisoners were held in a colony on the occupied territory of the Donetsk region. On the night of July 29, 2022, an explosion occurred in one of the premises, killing dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Russia and Ukraine presented opposing versions of what happened. The Ukrainian side considers the incident a deliberate murder of prisoners and a war crime.
But for the current story, another fact is especially important. In May 2026, a representative of the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters, Bohdan Okhrimenko, reported that some of the servicemen held in Olenivka were planned to be exchanged literally in a few days. Then the explosion happened.
That is why for relatives, the words “we are waiting for the next exchange” sound very different than for an outside observer. They already had an experience where there were only a few days between the expectation of return and catastrophe.
Israel appeared in the Azovstal story back in May 2022
The connection of Asman’s current appeal with Israel did not arise today.
Back on May 16, 2022, a Jewish serviceman of Azov, who was at the surrounded plant, recorded an appeal to then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the Knesset, and Israeli society. He asked Israel to help save people at Azovstal and separately reminded that among the surrounded defenders there are Jews.
NANovosti recently restored this appeal in full in the material “We ask you for salvation”: the appeal of a Jewish Azov fighter to the government of Israel.
At that time, Israel did not become a separate mediator for the fate of the garrison. But the appeal itself is important now, four years later: Ukrainian soldiers tried to reach out to Israeli society even before leaving the plant’s territory, and today some of those people are still waiting for their return.
Therefore, Asman’s current words about using connections specifically in Israel here sound not accidental.
What Asman really has, besides a loud title
Turning Moshe Asman into a person who can negotiate an exchange tomorrow would, of course, be incorrect. He does not have a state mandate from either Ukraine, Israel, or the USA. He does not determine exchange lists.
But it is also not worth treating his words as an empty declaration.
In recent years, Asman has regularly used his own contacts at the intersection of Ukraine, Israel, the USA, and international Jewish structures. In February 2026, he was already working in Washington during Ukrainian Week, participating in prayer breakfasts, events near the Capitol, and meetings with American political and religious figures.
In June, he met with a representative of the US State Department and discussed the situation of religious communities during the war.
There is also an Israeli direction. In July, Asman was in Israel and met with Natan Sharansky — a former Soviet political prisoner, Israeli minister, and one of the most famous international human rights activists in the Jewish world. NANovosti detailed the meeting of Moshe Asman with Natan Sharansky in Israel.
This does not mean that Sharansky is now dealing with the issue of Azov members. There is no such information. But the example shows what kind of circle of contacts is implied when Asman talks about Israel and the Jewish world.
Asman already has experience in such international advocacy
There is another useful example.
In February, Asman participated in the international Justice Conference in Kyiv, where one of the central issues was the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia. At that time, he said that international sympathy alone is not enough and concrete actions are needed.
NANovosti wrote about this work in the material “The world needs more than sympathy — action is needed”: Moshe Asman at the Justice Conference.
The mechanism here is roughly the same. The rabbi cannot himself return a child or a serviceman across the border. His resource is different: bringing the topic to people who can take the next step — raise the issue to a political level, ensure a meeting, involve an organization, talk to officials, create additional public pressure.
Sometimes such chains end in nothing. Sometimes nothing starts without them at all.
Why the Israeli channel can matter
Here I would separate two things.
First — official Israel. As of September 10, there are no public grounds to assert that the Israeli government has begun separate mediation for the release of Azov fighters, that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has received a new mandate, or that Asman is negotiating with Russia on behalf of the state.
We do not know this and cannot write this.
Second — Israel and the Jewish world as a network of people and organizations. Here the space is much wider: politicians in the past and present, rabbis, human rights activists, public organizations, large Jewish structures in the USA, people with access to Congress and the administration.
Asman indeed has such connections. And it is about them that he speaks now.
For Israeli society, the very topic of captivity, unfortunately, also does not require a long explanation. Israel knows the price of years of waiting, negotiations through intermediaries, lists, informational uncertainty, and a situation where the fate of a specific person becomes an element of big politics.
The Ukrainian and Israeli cases cannot be mechanically compared. The wars are different, the sides are different, the negotiation mechanisms are different too. But a family that has not known for four years when their person will return home is understood without translation.
Not “the rabbi will free the prisoners,” but the search for another working channel
In this story, it is very easy to write a beautiful but incorrect headline: “The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine connected Israel to the release of Azov members.”
No. Not yet connected.
He stated that he uses his contacts in Israel, Washington, and the Jewish world to make the issue of Ukrainian prisoners sound louder among people capable of influencing decisions. This is already significant, but it is still a different formulation.
The boundary between these two things is the most important today.
The families of Mariupol defenders have been trying different mechanisms for four years. The International Red Cross, UN structures, the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters, exchange negotiations, public campaigns, The Hague, Geneva, meetings with American politicians. Somewhere it gives results, somewhere the door remains closed.
Now another door has appeared.
Asman himself wrote that he will do everything in his power until people return. The result of this work can be checked not by the number of meetings, photos, or loud statements. The criterion here is one and quite harsh — how many families will indeed wait for theirs next time.
For now, the last known point remains heavy: after the exchange on August 19, more than 600 Azov fighters still remained in Russian captivity.
And many of them have been there since 2022.