As Andrii Yusov, representative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, noted, unlike the Russian Federation, it is more important for Ukraine to return its citizens home and save their lives.
Points of attention
- The "I want to my own" project promotes the return of Ukrainians from captivity and provides an opportunity for relatives to interact in this process.
- Ukraine exchanges not only military personnel, but also agents who worked for the Russian Federation.
- The SBU fights against collaborators and people who help the Russian Federation, and has more than 7,400 criminal proceedings in this direction.
Ukraine will be able to return more prisoners thanks to the "I want to" project
As Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Ministry of Defense, noted, this is the third project that promotes the return of Ukrainians home. The first is "I want to live" for voluntary surrender to Russian occupiers and "I want to find" for relatives of Russian soldiers.
Of course, we all want any Medvedchuks and others to be punished and serve their full sentence. But in Ukraine, unlike the Russian Federation, the lives of its own citizens are not empty sounds. It is really important for us to return all our women, children, soldiers, civilians home and we will do it. What do we want more just punishment for a traitor or saving the lives of our citizens? As part of this project, we choose to save our citizens.
Andriy Yusov
Representative of GUR MOU
During the conference, Andriy Yusov said that collaborators work for Russia not only because of ideas and remuneration. There are situations when they are blackmailed and put under certain pressure.
The main thing here is the realization that you are being used, you are breaking the law and harming your own country. If you have such an awareness, contact the "I want my own" project and Ukraine will definitely help its own citizens in this situation, Yusov said.
Ukraine exchanged a clergyman for 28 Ukrainian defenders
SBU spokesman Artem Dekhtyarenko emphasized that during the exchange of prisoners, Ukraine gives Russia not only the military, but also the agency that was exposed. As an example, he named a clergyman who managed to be exchanged for 28 Ukrainian defenders.
It is especially important to note that only those cases in which court verdicts are available can participate in this project, and only with the consent of the convicted themselves, the SBU spokesman emphasized.
He added that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the SBU has opened more than 7,400 criminal investigations related to collaborative activities and assistance to the Russian Federation. More than a thousand people already have court sentences. More than 2,800 cases of treason have been opened, of which 550 have been sentenced.
Almost 500 criminal cases have been opened against correctional officers, 120 of them have been convicted.
Of all the convicts, about 500 people gave their consent to the exchange, to their participation in the program. More than 200 people out of these 500 agreed to publish their data in this project . That is, these people are currently counting on an exchange in the Russian Federation. But you can be sure that Russia is in no hurry to take its own. On the website, under each case, there is a countdown of how long this person is waiting for the exchange, - added Dekhtyarenko.
The director of the department of information policy, communication and protocol measures of the secretariat of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Tetyana Shelest, added that the situation with the return of Ukrainian civilians from Russian prisons is extremely difficult.
We managed to return 161 Ukrainian civilians. The last return took place on June 28. The problem is that there is no clearly defined mechanism for the return of civilians. Ukrainians have been in Russian prisons since 2014, when Russia detained Ukrainian citizens in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. And after the start of the full-scale invasion, it detained our citizens in all territories that were or are under enemy occupation. Therefore, civilians are the most difficult category to return... That is why the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine joined the work on the "I want to own" project, which will help return our citizens," she emphasized.
