Ukraine does everything possible to hold prisoners of war exchanges every week – ombudsman

Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Commissioner for Human Rights, has said that Ukraine's representatives are doing everything to ensure that prisoner swaps with Russia take place every week.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets on the national joint 24/7 newscast 

Quote from Dmytro Lubinets: "Indeed, there have been additional reasons for restrained optimism since the start of the Kursk operation by our lads and lasses…

I can say that the communication [...] between [Tatyana] Moskalkova [Russian Commissioner for Human Rights] and myself has become more scheduled and more systematic, and we have begun to receive more information from the Russian side.

Could this indicate that we will undergo some kind of periodic exchange process? I don't know that as of today, but the Ukrainian side is doing everything to ensure that [prisoners of war] exchanges take place every week.

And one of the key factors that directly affects this is the number of Russian prisoners of war that we currently have."

Details: Meanwhile, Lubinets reiterates that the Russians can "stop any exchange processes at any time without any explanation". He also does not believe that an "all-for-all" exchange can be organised in the near future.

Regarding the Ukrainians liberated in the exchange on 24 August, Dmytro Lubinets noted that "in terms of their medical condition, they all need immediate medical care, and in terms of their psychological condition, everything is much better".

Quote from Dmytro Lubinets: "Today, we also found out that all the folks were constantly moved from one institution to another. One guy said he was moved more than 29 times. That is, once a month, even more often, he went to a new institution. We will analyse why this was done."

Lubinets said that Ukraine offered Russia to conduct prisoners of war exchanges based on the Geneva Conventions. The ombudsman added that the first category of people who should be brought back urgently were the severely wounded, and the second priority category was women.

Quote from Dmytro Lubinets: "We have 461 Ukrainian heroines who remain in Russian captivity among prisoners of war."

As for the rest, Lubinets said, Ukraine suggests that those who were captured earlier be exchanged first.

Background:

• On 24 August, Ukraine liberated another 115 prisoners of war from Russian captivity.
• Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War noted that all those liberated during the 55th prisoner swap were conscripts, including those who Russia had captured in the first months of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

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