Coordination Headquarters for Treatment of Prisoners of War shared how prisoner exchange lists are formed

Yahoo

26-02-2025

Russia often does not bring back people whom it has previously agreed to exchange or brings other prisoners instead.
Source: Bohdan Okhrimenko, Head of the Secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said on the national joint 24/7 newscast on 26 February.
Quote from Bohdan Okhrimenko: "Every day we send requests [with the names of Ukrainian servicemen - ed.] We receive refusals in 98% [of cases]. Out of each request, there may be one or two people on the Russian side who are theoretically ready to hand them over. Then the negotiation process begins, how it will be done, and who else can be included in this list. But, unfortunately, very regularly, the Russian side does not deliver the people it allegedly agreed to exchange or brings other people it did not agree to before."
Details: Okhrimenko reports that the Russians have also violated the agreements in other matters, including the bringing back of female servicewomen.
Okhrimenko stated that at the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, Russian servicewomen were captured by Ukrainians and later returned to Russia. However, Russia did not return the Ukrainian female servicewomen from captivity.
Quote from Bohdan Okhrimenko: "The Russian side did not follow the step we proposed. We individually handed female servicewomen to the Russian Federation, expecting the same step from the Russian side in return. Unfortunately, once again, Russia has proved that it does not keep its promises."
The Coordination Headquarters previously explained that there are no priorities in the exchange of soldiers of specific military units, and Ukraine is ready to bring back all those who are in captivity, including civilians.
At the same time, Okhrimenko said that the priority of the exchange may be influenced by the length of time a person has been in captivity.
Quote from Bohdan Okhrimenko: "People who stay in captivity for more than 18 months are a priority in exchange per the Geneva Convention."
Okhrimenko says returning civilians from Russian captivity is challenging because there is no authorised official in Russia responsible for this process.
Quote: "When we ask the Russian Defence Ministry about civilians, they say: 'This is not our responsibility; we do not deal with civilians'. When we try to inquire through certain channels with an alleged Russian official about the return of civilians, we receive negative responses stating that they cannot resolve this issue.
Therefore, I conclude that the problem of returning our civilians lies in the fact that there is no one in Russia who can take responsibility for this area of work."
Details: The return of prisoners of war whom Russia has illegally 'convicted' is also complicated, as the Russians change the status of these captives.
Quote: "Conviction is a factor that makes repatriation more difficult, but it is not a final sentence.
Returning convicted individuals is more complicated because the Russians claim they are not prisoners of war but have a different status, which requires a different mechanism even within Russia."
Details: However, past practice shows that returning illegally convicted Ukrainian defenders is possible. For instance, on 18 October, Ukraine managed to bring back more than 40 such individuals.
Okhrimenko reported that Ukraine has managed to return approximately 220 bodies of Ukrainians who died in Russian captivity.
The captivity of 100 of them was officially confirmed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, while the other 120 were known to be in captivity through other sources, such as videos.
Quote: "Since September 2024, we have carried out several repatriation operations. Each operation returned more than 500 bodies. The last two returned 757 bodies each."
Details: Okhrimenko added that the Coordination Headquarters has still not received a positive response from Russia regarding the return of the body of journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, whose death was reported on 10 October 2024.
Quote: "The Russians treat both military and civilian prisoners equally poorly. If a person had some level of media exposure before captivity, it harms them while they are there. They are tortured more than others…
If someone was well-known before captivity, there is nothing we can do about it. But if a family makes a non-public individual widely known, it complicates negotiations for their return."
Details: Okhrimenko also urged families of missing soldiers not to publish their details on social media or attempt to search for them this way.
Disseminating personal data could endanger a soldier who is hiding or already in captivity and attempting to conceal details of their identity from the Russians.
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