Ukraine’s human rights commissioner accused Russia on Thursday (Nov 30) of refusing to agree on new exchanges of prisoners of struggle after a stretch of three months during which no swaps have been reported.
Kyiv and Moscow have held many prisoner swaps for the reason that early months of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. However their depth dropped in 2023 and the final one occurred in early August.
“Exchanges do not occur as a result of Russia would not need them to,” stated Dmytro Lubinets, the human rights ombudsman who has recurrently had a task in prisoner exchanges up to now.
“All of the initiatives, needs and actions of Ukraine concerning the return of our defenders from captivity are met by a Russian unwillingness to return its residents,” he stated on Telegram messenger.
He added that Russian prisoners held in Ukraine had expressed a want to be exchanged.
“Nobody from the Russian facet needs to take them again,” he stated.
The Russian Defence Ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In November, the Ukrainian authorities stated it had registered 3,574 Ukrainian army and 763 civilians taken into Russian or Moscow-backed separatists’ captivity since 2014.
The determine included those that have already returned to Ukraine, it stated. Nevertheless, it stated the numbers didn’t present all the present prisoners.
Ukraine has already introduced again 2,598 individuals from Russian captivity throughout 48 swaps, the Strategic Communications Division of the Armed Forces stated on Tuesday.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the figures.
