Lubinets explained why it is difficult to return civilians from Russian captivity

This was stated by the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, during a news conference, Ukrinform news agency reported.

The ombudsman noted that it was extremely difficult to return civilians from Russian captivity.

First, according to international humanitarian law, we cannot conduct exchanges. This is defined exclusively for prisoners of war. Second, everyone understands that there are not many Russian citizens whom Russia would like to take back, if we are talking about civilians," Lubinets said.

In addition, Russian invaders judge civilian Ukrainians. They give the captives huge sentences, accusing them of espionage, terrorist activity, financing terrorist organisations and the like.

The main thing for them is to give large sentences - 15, 17, 18, 20, 25 years," the Ombudsman said.

According to him, there are known cases of detention and investigation of children.

These are citizens of Ukraine, under 18 years of age, who can also get long prison terms. We also have two cases when two children in Berdyansk were shot. These were children, both according to our and Russian legislation, - said the ombudsman.

We shall remind you that on 28 June,10 civilian Ukrainians were returned to Ukraine as part of the 53 prisoner exchange. Some of them were in Russian captivity since 2017-2018.