On May 31, 75 Ukrainians returned home from Russian captivity, although a few days ago Russian representatives reported that the exchange of prisoners of war had been suspended.
Russian side does not follow any rules during exchanges —Lubinets
Human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets told about Russia's disregard for international law on the air of the national telethon "Yedyni Novyny".
International conventions clearly define the priorities of such exchanges — seriously wounded, women are returned first, then others. There must be some rules by which these things happen. No answers from the Russian side, except: we will think about it, we will take it to work. Then, without any explanation, they strike off 99% of people from the lists that we provide, and then say: if you want to take them, if you don't, don't take them. Again, Ukraine never took an ultimate position. Of course we raise the issue of women seriously injured, but instead this exchange was on the verge of breaking down, but we managed to pull it off.
Dmytro Lubinets
Ombudsman of Ukraine
He told the stories of two women who were returned as part of the last exchange.
One of them, a defender of Mariupol, was in captivity for two years, her son was kept by the occupiers in the temporarily occupied territories. Ukraine managed to release him earlier.
We managed to get her son back first. Then we repeatedly talked about her return. We even engaged a separate mediator for her release. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to do it earlier. And today she returned and hugged her son for the first time in more than two years.
A representative of the National Police also returned to Ukraine as part of the exchange. Lubinets said that she was not only held captive, but also tortured both physically and mentally.
She was brought several times for exchanges and then informed that Ukraine refused her, and sent back. We can only imagine what the girl felt at that moment.
He noted that he sent several dozen letters to international organisations and raised issues regarding it with the International Committee of the Red Cross, but the results were achieved only now.
According to international conventions, she is a representative of the National Police, she is not a combatant, she did not fight against the Russians. And Russia, in violation of all norms, kept it and returned it only through the exchange procedure.
He added that Ukraine records the state in which it hands over Russian prisoners of war and the state in which our citizens return.
In general, according to him, everyone who was returned from captivity today talks about torture, traditionally, according to him, those released from captivity report that they did not see representatives of the Red Cross Committee. A third of those released are injured, seriously injured, and all, according to Lubinets, are exhausted, have lost weight, and need treatment and rehabilitation.
At the same time, we can say that everyone is psychologically stable, everyone was happy when they saw that the exchange took place.
Coordination headquarters revealed the details of new exchange of prisoners
It is important to understand that the exchange took place thanks to the efforts of the Coordination Staff on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
It was possible to rescue 70 men and five women from Russian captivity: six officers and 65 representatives of the ranks and sergeants.
It is also worth noting that at least a third of those rescued have injuries, serious illnesses or disabilities.
This time, 37 representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were released from captivity, including 13 soldiers of the Naval Forces and two representatives of the Air Force. Also, 21 national guardsmen were released from captivity. Seven border guardsmen, six teroboronmen and four Ukrainian civilians are returning home, the report says.
In total, 3,210 Ukrainians have already been returned from Russian captivity.
