Ukrainians kept blindfolded for 6 hours before POW exchange

Human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said this during the telethon.

We are talking about prisoners of war who were exchanged in the Chernihiv region on the border with Belarus. This is one of the three locations of the exchange and the one where the ombudsman participated. However, it was here that the largest number of Ukrainians returned.

"Knowing that they were going to be released, they were still kept in the buses blindfolded and not allowed to go anywhere. Only after the process had already started, they were finally allowed to take off the blindfolds late at night," he said. 

In addition, the Russians kept Ukrainian men and women in solitary confinement, severely limited their food, and practically did not give them any means of personal hygiene. Some of the prisoners of war admitted after their return that it was difficult to start speaking again, because there was no such possibility in the Russian cells. Also, most of them have lost a lot of weight and now need rehabilitation.

According to Dmytro Lubinets, the exchange of captured foreigners and Azov soldiers took place at the other two locations: "One plane with ten citizens of foreign countries took off from the Russian Federation and flew to the United Arab Emirates. The other plane with five our commanders from Azovstal - flew to Turkey."