Prisoner of war exchange: whom the Russians refuse to return

The Ukrainian parliamentary ombudsman for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said this at a briefing at the All-Ukrainian human rights forum Legion of Rights, the UNIAN news agency has said.

According to the ombudsman, Ukrainian military and civilians have been held captive in Russia since the Antiterrorist operation and the United Forces operation between 2014 and 2022. Russia refuses to return these people.

We have a separate list of those held captive from 2014 to 24 February 2022. As of today, we have not been able to return any of this list," Lubinets said.

He added that Ukraine always adds the names of captives from 2014 while handing over large lists for exchange to the Russian side. But sometimes the Russians just cross them off the list.

It is worth noting that Lubinets did not voice the number of prisoners of war who are in Russia or in the temporarily occupied territories. However, according to him, it is known that 373 civilians are held by the occupiers in Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea.

We shall remind you that the 47th exchange of prisoners of war took place on 6 July. Forty-five Ukrainian defenders and two civilians were returned home. A total of 2,576 servicemen have been returned to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.

Additionally, they managed to return two children deported by the Russians.