Russia holds over 16,000 Ukrainian civilians in captivity - Commissioner for Human Rights

This was announced by The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets at a briefing, Ukrinform reports.

‘We have a separate list, according to which, according to preliminary data, more than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are held in Russian prisons,’ he said.

The ombudsman stressed that the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law do not provide for the exchange of prisoners for prsisoners of war.

‘This exchange procedure is only for prisoners of war, but we managed to release 168 civilians. It's a small number, but there is a mechanism for us to do this. The Ukrainian side, the negotiating team, is doing everything to return everyone from Russian captivity, including journalists,’ Lubinets said.

According to him, there is a separate list of captured journalists. The Commissioner believes that the Russians are holding them captive, torturing and killing them in order to ‘shut up the media representatives in the occupied territories of Ukraine’.

At least three Ukrainian media professionals from Melitopol are currently in captivity in Russia - Anastasia Glukhovska, Iryna Levchenko and Georgiy Levchenko.

Lubinets also reminded that the enemy has not yet handed over the body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who died in captivity.

‘The Russian side officially informed the father, even sent the death certificate. On the other hand, when I started raising the issue of transferring the body for a proper burial, we are still continuing consultations,’ the ombudsman added.

• On July 9, it was reported that the Russian Federation was holding more than 14,000 Ukrainian citizens in captivity.