“On the issue of the return of prisoners of war, the main mediator is the United Arab Emirates. There is communication, I really hope that we will have positive news by the new year. I really do not want the Ukrainian society to perceive this information as an announcement You can never be 100% sure that you expect an agreement from the Russian Federation, the ombudsman said.
Lubinets announced Russia’s refusal to cooperate in returning Ukrainian children. According to him, each return of a child is a separate operation, sometimes complex and lengthy.
“If we return one child every day, it will take us more than 55 years to return the Ukrainian children verified today, and the Russians continue to deport, export, forcibly transfer,” he stressed.
The Ombudsman noted that there are around 1.5 million children in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. All are threatened with deportation.
Prisoner exchanges
Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine and Russia have conducted 58 prisoner of war exchanges. More than 3.5 thousand Ukrainians were returned from Russian captivity.
The last exchange of prisoners took place on the night of October 19. 95 Ukrainian soldiers returned home.
Earlier, Ukraine stated that it was ready for an exchange according to the “all for all” formula. Russia ignores the initiative.
Read urgent and important messages about Russia’s war against Ukraine on the channel RBC-Ukraine on Telegram.
