Russia stops prisoner exchanges to undermine Ukrainian society

The head of the press service of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Petro Yatsenko, said this, NV reports.

According to Yatsenko, 22 Ukrainian soldiers returned home in August. Previously, exchanges took place almost every month.

He noted that the Ukrainian side is ready to exchange prisoners of war, we have a lot of them: "Our detention centers are filling up, and we don't need to keep these Russian prisoners of war at all. We would be happy to exchange them even tomorrow for our defenders."

Yatsenko added that the conditions in which Ukrainian defenders are being held in Russia are much worse than the conditions Ukraine offers as a European country that adheres to the Third Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

"The reasons may also be that Russia is trying to undermine Ukrainian society, trying to convince the relatives of prisoners of war that the exchanges are not taking place because of obstacles on the Ukrainian side. It is calling for some kind of mass protests. And in this way, they use prisoners of war as another lever of influence on Ukrainians.

"We are not sitting idly by, we are constantly trying to work actively. The Coordination Center, headed by Kyrylo Budanov, is trying to find different arguments to make the process go ahead and get Ukrainian people back. There are various options we are working on, and the process is constantly ongoing," said the spokesman.

• On October 22, intelligence representative 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.
• On November 7, the head of the Ministry of Justice, Denys Maliuska, said that a new camp would be opened for Russian prisoners of war due to the large number of them.
• On November 14, Ukraine submitted an open letter to the Red Cross because of Russia's failure to comply with the requirements for the treatment of prisoners.