Ukraine on Sunday rejected claims by the Russian Foreign Ministry that it would not take back hundreds of prisoners of war proposed for exchange.
“We are ready to conduct an exchange of prisoners of war at any time! We adhere to the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law!” Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinez wrote this on Telegram.
“As a rule, these processes are slowed down by the Russian Federation. And it uses this as a method to influence Ukrainian society!”
On Saturday afternoon, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a hastily convened videoconference with correspondents from several countries that Russia had recently proposed 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange.
However, she claimed that Kiev only wanted 279 prisoners back, most of whom were ultranationalist fighters. Zakharova claimed that the remaining 650-plus men were not considered “worthy” by Kiev or were even described as “traitors.”
Zakharova accused Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha of “political tourism” for repeatedly using the POW issue as an opportunity to travel abroad to stoke sentiment against Moscow.
She said Russia had always implemented prisoner exchanges through the mediation of other states and was still willing to do so.
Such exchanges are the last forum in which Moscow and Kiev are still in contact. After more than two and a half years of Russian war against Ukraine, thousands of families are waiting for the return of their relatives from captivity.
Both warring sides have exchanged prisoners several times – a total of thousands so far. It is unclear how many prisoners each side is currently holding.
