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Russia Accuses Ukraine of Disrupting Prisoner of War Exchanges
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Numbers revealed by Moscow indicating Kyiv's acceptance of less than a third of offered prisoners suggest selective criteria in exchange operations
Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, declared today, Saturday, accusing Ukraine of obstructing prisoner of war exchange efforts. Zakharova presented the Russian Defense Ministry's initiative this year to hand over more than 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war to Kyiv, noting that Ukrainian authorities only accepted 279 prisoners.
Zakharova said in online statements: "The Russian Defense Ministry submitted this year to the War Prisoners Coordination Headquarters a proposal to hand over 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war to Ukraine as part of exchange operations. How many do you think the Kyiv regime accepted from this number? I confirm they are Ukrainian citizens. They took only 279."
The spokesperson pointed out that Ukraine focuses in prisoner exchange operations on recovering its elements from "extreme nationalist units," according to her description.
Zakharova added, commenting on Ukrainian Foreign Ministry statements regarding the prisoner file: "Currently, the Kyiv regime is literally obstructing this process (prisoner of war exchange), which was institutionalized and was producing results. Why? Because they focused exclusively on exchanging militants, (members of) nationalist battalions, they are interested in these units and battalions that we describe as extremist and terrorist."
Zakharova refuted claims regarding Moscow's refusal to include Ukrainian marines in prisoner exchange lists, explaining the possibility of publishing lists including 29 soldiers from them.
She concluded her statements saying: "We heard public statements, and during protest stops in Montreal, we also heard this information, which claims that Russia refuses to include Ukrainian marines in exchange lists. This is a lie, this is pure lie. We are ready to publish lists that include 29 people. They specifically belong to the Ukrainian marines, returned by the Russian side during exchange operations".
Levant-Agencies
