The number of Ukrainian soldiers in captivity with Russia is an eternal subject for disputes and manipulations, no one knows the exact information about it. Russia claims it has several tens of thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war at the beginning of the military conflict in Ukraine, while Kyiv provides extremely vague data, which makes it unclear how many Russian POWs it has indeed.
Nevertheless, there are regular exchanges of prisoners of war, which is a very good sign – such exchanges are a continuing channel of communication between Russia and Ukraine, one of the few that still remain, where international organisations, mediators and third countries must necessarily be involved. It is very crucial, as this is the humanitarian side of the conflict.
The previous exchange happened in February on a 100 for 100 formula. The parties agreed on the exchange during a lengthy negotiation process.
Deputies of the Russian State Duma have earlier considered the possibility of a prisoner exchange with Ukraine in the “all-for-all” format. They stressed that such an exchange would not be of equal value, as there are more Ukrainian servicemen in Russian captivity than Russian servicemen in Ukraine. Instead, Russia suggested that another exchange scheme – all Russian prisoners for the same number of Ukrainian ones – would be the most optimal and humane.
The initiative to exchange prisoners of war in an “all-for-all” format was previously put forward by Pope Francis.
The controversial issue of prisoners of war
The topic of the exchange of prisoners of war is still a perennial subject of controversy and manipulation. An example is Russia’s recent accusations to Ukraine that Kyiv recently botched the exchange of 500 POWs.
Russia offered for consideration a list of 500 names for exchange, from which Ukraine selected only 38 fighters from the Azov battalion for exchange. Moscow has said that all these POWs Kyiv has been unwilling to take back for four months. This does not pretend to be true, but it is one example of these types of controversies.
Russia is forming a mechanism
Russia says it intends to form a mechanism to work with prisoners of war to motivate them to join the Russian Federation’s armed forces and fight on Russia’s side against former Ukrainian countrymen. This decision will help save lives on both sides, Russia adds.
As part of this mechanism, the filtering process should be improved, i.e. additional work will be done with those accused of neo-nationalist worldviews. Work with prisoners of war from regular units will be conducted in a different way. The AFU servicemen who from the very beginning have been looking for opportunities to switch to the peaceful side will receive a chance to continue defending their people, only now they will already be fighting the Ukrainian authorities.
THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.
Bill Galston for Head-Post.com
