About 600 residents of Zaporizhzhia region are in Russian captivity – local official

Radio Liberty reports this with reference to the words of the head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration Yuriy Malashko.

According to the administration, as of October 27, there are about 600 civilians in Russian captivity in Zaporizhzhia region. The prisoners can be held both in the temporarily occupied territory of the region and in the territory of the Russian Federation.

"As of today, we have officially registered data on about 600 civilians who are missing or in detention centres. These are the cases when relatives call us or the Joint Centre for the Release of Prisoners and tell us what is happening," said Yuriy Malashko, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration.

According to him, all appeals are necessarily registered with the police and taken under control for the next exchange or return home.

"If a person served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, they usually take such people to the Russian Federation and keep them in Rostov-on-Don or somewhere else in prison. If they are civilians, they can be held in pre-trial detention centres or basements," Malashko added.

• On October 22, a representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Andriy Yusov, said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, about 2,600 citizens have returned home – mostly defenders, but there are also civilians among them.