Russia refuses to confirm capture of Ukrainian civilians - Coordination Headquarters

This issue was discussed at a meeting of relatives of prisoners with representatives of the Coordination Headquarters and the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Ukrinform reports.

A representative of the Coordination Headquarters said that according to the Geneva Conventions, civilians must be released without any demands. However, Russia refuses not only to release civilians, but also to confirm their detention in most cases.

At the meeting, Turkey's participation in the return of Ukrainians from captivity was noted. It is noted that with the assistance of Ankara, a positive result has already been achieved, so Kyiv seeks to continue work in this direction.

"There are already positive results. At the end of last year, Russian ombudsperson [Tatyana] Moskalkova confirmed the capture of about 120 civilians who were considered missing," a representative of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights said.

According to him, "the Russians grabbed civilians like in the thirties of the last century - in the middle of the night from their homes. Therefore, there is no information about many of them. Now they are inventing accusations against them: they say, some of them allegedly helped the Armed Forces or served in the army."

The Coordination Staff representative added that Russia holds Ukrainian civilians in order to manipulate and destabilize the Ukrainian society, saying that Ukraine allegedly does not want to return them. "We did not refuse from any person whom the Russians agreed to exchange,” he said.

As reported by Ukrinform, the Russian side canceled another prisoner exchange scheduled for Saturday, January 14.

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