Lubinets on peace plan: Ukraine insists on all-for-all exchange formula
Ukraine, within the framework of the peace process and the humanitarian track, insists on the return of all its citizens, prisoners of war, civilian hostages, and deported children, based on the all-for-all principle.
The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, stated this during a press conference, Ukrinform reports.
According to him, the Ukrainian delegation held three rounds of negotiations with the Russian Federation in Turkey, where his Deputy, Yurii Kovbasa, was the official member and conducted the talks on the humanitarian track.
"Before leaving for Geneva and the United States, I had a more than two-hour conversation with NSDC Secretary Rustem Umerov, who heads the Ukrainian delegation. We separately worked through the issues of the humanitarian track," Lubinets said.
He emphasized that during every meeting, the Ukrainian side raises humanitarian issues first and foremost.
"The first is conducting exchange processes, including using the all-for-all formula. The second is the return of all Ukrainian children," he said.
Lubinets stressed that Ukraine is ready to verify data and maintain additional communication, but the principle of returning absolutely all citizens remains unchanged.
"In the Ukrainian interpretation, the all-for-all formula means returning all citizens of Ukraine, prisoners of war and civilian hostages. We do not exclude them," he emphasized.
He also stated that Russia's opening of criminal proceedings against Ukrainian prisoners of war contradicts the Geneva Convention.
"We demand that such actions by the Russian Federation be recognized as a violation of the Geneva Convention. It explicitly prohibits opening criminal cases against prisoners of war," Lubinets stressed.
He added that international humanitarian law also prohibits detaining civilians who remained in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
"We have legal grounds to demand the return of all citizens of Ukraine from the territory of the Russian Federation and the temporarily occupied territories," Lubinets concluded.
As Ukrinform reported, on Human Rights Day, December 10, the International Human Rights Conference "Lessons from Ukraine for the World: New Challenges in the Field of Human Rights Protection" began in Kyiv.