Russia holding about 24,000 Ukrainian civilians hostage – ombudsman

The relevant statement was made by Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets during a large-scale meeting with the relatives of prisoners of war and missing members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service, and other structures from the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia region, which took place in the city of Dnipro, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“According to the data from the Unified Register of Missing Persons, which was launched on May 2, 2023, about 24,000 civilian hostages are remaining in Russia,” Lubinets noted.

In the course of the meeting, the ombudsman spoke of communication with Russia’s commissioner for human rights Tatyana Moskalkova, and the refusal of the Russian side to conduct an ‘all-for-all’ prisoner swap, as well as the repatriation of those seriously injured and the return of civilians.

According to Lubinets, Russians are delaying the exchange procedure in order to adversely influence the attitude of the relatives of prisoners of war towards Ukraine as a state.