Svitlana Bilous travelled half way across Europe — from her home in Ukraine to a Swiss mountaintop resort — to stand on the sidelines of an international summit to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine and tell the world about her missing husband.

During the day’s events, she will join scores of other relatives of Ukrainian soldiers waving banners and shouting slogans and trying to raise awareness of the troops who have disappeared on the battlefield. Many do not know if their loved ones have been killed or taken by Russia as prisoners of war.

Russia is not invited to the summit in Buergenstock near Lucerne, at which Ukraine will present its plan to end the war that started with Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The families want the other world powers there to find ways to press Moscow to hand over information, improve the conditions of any captives and, as soon as possible, send them home. “I must do everything in my power to get my husband back,” Bilous, 34, from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, told Reuters as officials arrived ahead of the summit

Since Anatoliy went missing in April last year, she has only heard that he is alive but had no direct contact with him. Every day she carries the shoulder patch from his uniform and prays for his return.

“I always carry his chevron with me with his callsign, Fox, always,” Svitlana told.