Latest news with #Okhrimenko
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Coordination Headquarters for Treatment of Prisoners of War shared how prisoner exchange lists are formed
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. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia exceeded mobilization goals in occupied Ukrainian territories last year, official says
Russia fulfilled its goal of mobilizing thousands of men in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine last year, Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, told the news outlet Ukrinform in an interview Feb. 22. In its efforts to avoid an unpopular mass mobilization campaign at home, Russia has illegally drafted thousands of residents living in occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, as well as in occupied Crimea. Russia exceeded its mobilization goals for these regions in 2024, Okhrimenko told Ukrinform, citing Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR). "In 2024, Russia had to mobilize thousands of people from the newly occupied territories and those who had previously been under occupation," Okhrimenko said. "According to (HUR), this plan has been fulfilled by 104%. They have a plan for mobilization here and for the current year. It is also thousands of people." Okhrimenko did not say exactly how many people in the occupied territories had been drafted into the Russian military. The Ukrainian government is working on amending legislation to remove prisoner of war (POW) status from forcibly mobilized Ukrainians who are later captured in Ukraine. "There is a certain legal incident in international documents, international law, so we are working on amending Resolution No. 413 and a number of other resolutions," Okhrimenko said. Since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has supplemented its troops by forcibly drafting tens of thousands of Ukrainians in occuped territories. Nearly 5,500 residents of Russian-occupied Crimea were mobilized into the Russian army in 2024 — a year that saw record personnel losses as Moscow ramped up its offensive in eastern Ukraine. Forced conscription under occupation constitutes a war crime under international law. Read also: As Trump and Moscow align their vision, battle to stabilize Donetsk front rests on a knife edge We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why Russia refuses to release journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna's body: Ukraine's POW headquarters weighs in
Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War is working to recover the body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in Russian captivity. Source: Bohdan Okhrimenko, Head of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, in an interview with Ukrinform news agency Details: Okhrimenko suggested that Roshchyna's body has not been released since autumn 2024, as "there will be questions about the cause of her death". "I'm not saying this, but I'm assuming. In order to conceal the cause of death, you need to keep the body in inappropriate conditions for as long as possible. Any forensic expert will tell you that. We're trying to convince the other side to hand it over. After that, we'll be able to say something [about the time and cause of her death – ed.], now we are only making assumptions," Okhrimenko said. He notes that the Coordination Headquarters has made repeated requests for Roshchyna's release from captivity, but the Russians continue to delay the process. "After a lengthy dialogue last autumn, we received a response from the Russians indicating they seemed ready to hand her over. However, they postponed the date of her release several times. During that period, there were multiple exchanges. On 24 August, we brought back our conscripts from Russia. There were two consecutive exchanges on 13 and 14 September, one of which included civilians. For some reason, the Russian side did not agree to hand her over on that day," he noted. The Coordination Headquarters urged the Russians to set a date for Viktoriia's release. Okhrimenko said this would not have necessarily required an exchange; it could have been arranged as a mutual swap of civilians through the human rights commissioners of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, and Russia, Tatiana Moskalkova. "We told them [the Russians] to set a date and we could take the necessary measures. We have the experience. But they said they would hand over Viktoriia during the next swap. However, that next time never came, as we later received information that she had died. They did not inform us of this, but it was revealed through a lawyer hired by her father. On that day, there was an exchange of civilians and we had hoped she would be included, but sadly... The next swap took place on 18 October, when those sentenced to life imprisonment were brought back," says Okhrimenko. Background: Viktoriia Roshchyna's death was confirmed on 10 October 2024. On that day, her family received a letter from the Russian Ministry of Defence stating that she had died on 19 September. At the time, Ukraine's Defence Intelligence noted that Viktoriia was soon to be brought back to Ukraine, as she was on the exchange list. Law enforcement officials classified the criminal proceedings regarding Roshchyna's disappearance as a war crime, coupled with premeditated murder. Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared on 3 August 2023 while reporting from Russian-occupied territory, where she was working to shine a light on the lives of people living under occupation. For a long time, nothing was known about her fate. It was not until May 2024 that Russia admitted to having detained Roshchyna. The Russian Defence Ministry sent a letter confirming this to her father, Volodymyr Roshchyn. It was the second time that Viktoriia had been held in captivity. She was first captured by the Russians in March 2022. Roshchyna was held for 10 days in Berdiansk. In 2022, Roshchyna wrote a series of reports for Ukrainska Pravda from the temporarily occupied territories. Notably, she covered life in occupied Crimea during the war, the sham referendum held in occupied Donetsk Oblast, and presented a photo report from the destroyed Mariupol. Read also: Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna killed in captivity: a tribute through 7 of her best articles Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
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. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
