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Russia often “does not deliver” people whom it has previously agreed to exchange, or brings other prisoners instead.
This was stated by Bohdan Okhrimenko, Head of the Secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, during a telethon on February 26.
“Every day we send requests [with the names of Ukrainian soldiers – ed. We receive refusals in 98% [of cases]. Out of each request, there may be one or two people whom the Russian side is theoretically ready to hand over. Then the negotiation process begins, how it will be done, who else can be included in this list.
But, unfortunately, very often the Russian side does not bring the people it has supposedly agreed to exchange, or brings other people it did not agree to before,” Okhrimenko said.
According to him, the Russians have also violated agreements on other issues, including the return of female soldiers.
Okhrimenko said that at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russian servicewomen were captured by Ukrainians and later returned to Russia. But Russia did not return the Ukrainian defenders from captivity.
“The Russian side did not take the step we proposed. We individually handed over female servicewomen to the Russian Federation, expecting the same step from the Russian side in return. Unfortunately, once again Russia proved that it does not keep its promises,” Okhrimenko said.
