Russia suspends prisoner exchange - Ukraine's coordination centre
Russia has suspended the exchange of prisoners. The last exchange took place in August 2023.
This was stated by Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Coordination Headquarters of Ukraine, in an interview with Suspilne.
In this way, the Russian Federation is trying to create the impression that the Ukrainian authorities are not dealing with the issue of POWs.
But in fact, the work is going on, we are not sitting idly by, we are constantly working to organise the next exchange,
Yatsenko said.
According to Yatsenko, Ukraine is making proposals to the Russian side. A coordination centre has been set up with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Ukraine has also set up joint medical commissions, as provided for in the Third Geneva Convention.
This is a commission consisting of two representatives of a neutral country and one representative of the detaining country, i.e. Ukraine. A similar commission should be formed by the Russian side, so that these commissions, when visiting places of detention, can identify prisoners of war who need medical care and should be repatriated,
the representative of the Coordination Centre said.
The last prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine took place on August 7. At that time, 22 Ukrainian soldiers were returned to Ukraine from Russian captivity, some of them wounded. It was the 48th exchange.
It will be recalled that on October 10, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported that Ukraine had returned 2,598 of its military personnel and civilians, including 386 children.
