Russia doesn't want to exchange captured Azov fighters and marines
Bohdan Okhrimenko, the head of the secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, has stated that Russia is unwilling to exchange captured Azov fighters and marines, but Russian negotiators are interested in swapping conscripts and Chechens from the Ukrainian side.
Source: Okhrimenko in an interview with news agency Ukrinform
Quote from Okhrimenko: "The situation regarding the Azov fighters, as well as the marines, is complicated. The Russian side does not want to hand them over. Russia has declared Azov a terrorist organisation, and when we succeed in bringing Azov fighters back from captivity, and their people find out, the authorities there suffer losses to their reputation. Meanwhile, marines are perceived in Russia as motivated and well-trained servicemen who would be ready to rejoin the Armed Forces upon their return.
Therefore, while members of other units – such as the Territorial Defence Forces, Ground Forces, or the State Border Guard Service, whom we refer to as 'defenders of the Mariupol garrison' – are being brought back, there is indeed a problem when it comes to the marines and Azov fighters."
Details: Okhrimenko also commented on the release of Azov fighters from military unit 3057.
"Azovstal was defended by mixed units, comprising representatives from all branches and types of troops. At that time, Prokopenko led the Azov battalion within military unit 3057 [Denys Prokopenko, commander of the National Guard's Azov brigade – ed.]. Now, he commands the entire 3057 unit. The release of personnel from other subdivisions of this unit should also be a priority. I can say that we have managed to bring back 30% of the servicemen from military unit 3057," Okhrimenko noted.
Okhrimenko stated that Russian negotiators had expressed particular interest in the return of Russian conscripts and Chechens from captivity.
"Our negotiators' work sometimes involves not only securing agreements for the release of our citizens but also persuading the Russians to take back their own. They have a huge number of forcibly mobilised individuals and convicts recruited from prisons. Large numbers of those mobilised from the occupied territories and the so-called 'Luhansk/Donetsk People's Republics' [non-recognised and self-proclaimed quasi-state formations – ed.], whom Russia does not even recognise as its own citizens. They are not interested in people from small ethnic groups, except for Chechens. For some reason, they disregard their own citizens but are willing to take back Chechens. There may also be interest when a conscript is captured, as Putin has told his electorate that conscripts would not participate in combat. However, they actually do, and we have demonstrated this," he said.
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