Ukraine hands over 30 Russian civilians to Russia

This was reported on the project's page on Telegram, according to Ukrinform.

“Yesterday, 14 civilians, citizens of the Russian Federation, were transferred to Russia. Today, another 16 Russians were transferred,” the message says.

The project reminded that at the same time, thousands of Ukrainian civilians—women, children, and elderly people—are being illegally detained in Russia.

From the first days of the full-scale invasion, the Russian military systematically took civilians hostage. People were detained, tortured, and then taken to Russia. The Russian side declares a significant portion of these people to be “prisoners of war” and agrees to return them only in exchange for its own servicemen who have been captured.

To date, Ukraine has managed to return 372 civilian hostages.

Among them is 51-year-old Serhiy Akhmetov from Bucha, a master craftsman who makes educational toys for children.

On March 9, 2022, Russian soldiers broke into his home, beat him, and took him to Russia via Belarus.

Until October 2025, he was held in pre-trial detention centers in Briansk and Vladimir, and then in one of the colonies in Mordovia.

Serhiy was not tried, he was not a prisoner of war, but Russia held him for three and a half years and returned him only in exchange for one of its soldiers.

Russia treats deported Ukrainian citizens in a similar manner. People are deliberately taken to the buffer zone on the Russian-Georgian border without being given any documents, thus depriving them of the opportunity to cross the border.

People live in the basements of checkpoints for months.

“Ukraine remains a state governed by the rule of law. Unlike Putin's Russia, we do not use people as hostages or play with their lives. We act within the framework of international humanitarian law and continue to return Russian citizens to their families unilaterally, confirming Ukraine's responsible attitude towards the protection of human life and rights,” the draft states.

As reported by Ukrinform, civilian prisoner Sergiy Akhmetov, who was captured by the Russians in March 2022 during the temporary occupation of Bucha, has returned home.