Ukraine on Sunday rejected claims by the Russian Foreign Ministry that it does not want to return hundreds of prisoners of war proposed for exchange.
“We are ready to exchange prisoners of war at any time! We adhere to the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law!” Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinez wrote on Telegram.
“As a matter of law, these processes are reduced by the Russian Federation. And it uses this as a way to influence the Ukrainian society!”
On Saturday afternoon, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, during a video conference called immediately with reporters from several countries that Russia has recently proposed 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange.
However, he said that Kiev wanted only 279 prisoners, most of whom were ultranationalist fighters. Zakharova said the remaining 650-plus men were not deemed “worthy” by Kiev or were described as “traitors.”
Zakharova accused Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha of “political tourism” because he repeatedly uses the issue of prisoners of war as an opportunity to travel abroad to stir up feelings about Moscow.
He said that Russia has always used the exchange of prisoners through the mediation of other states and is still willing to do so.
Such exchanges are the last platform where Moscow and Kiev still have contact. After more than two and a half years of Russia's war in Ukraine, thousands of families are waiting for their relatives to return from captivity.
Both warring parties have exchanged prisoners several times – a total of thousands so far. It is not clear how many prisoners the two sides are currently holding.
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