Coordination Headquarters hopes to resolve “Chechen issue” regarding POWs soon

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War hopes to repatriate all Ukrainian prisoners currently held in Chechnya in the near future.

This was stated in an interview with Ukrinform by Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

“Communication regarding the return of our citizens from there has been ongoing for a long time. This is a rather problematic issue, since the detention facilities in Chechnya are not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation. We are in the process of negotiations, and I hope we will resolve the Chechen issue soon, and it will no longer be raised,” he said.

When asked whether there are Chechens in Ukrainian captivity, Okhrimenko replied: “Chechen units are no longer actively participating in the war. However, there are representatives of Chechnya among our enemy prisoners of war.”

As reported by Ukrinform, 193 prisoners were returned during the second Easter exchange in April of this year.

This year, the Coordination Headquarters has returned 832 military personnel and civilians from Russian captivity. In total, 9,048 military personnel and civilians have been returned from Russian captivity since the start of the full-scale invasion.