Ukrainians who went missing because of the war (illustrative photo)/Main Intelligence Directorate
The number of war crimes committed by Russian invaders in Ukraine is growing every day. These include kidnapping.
Since the moment of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainians have been massively looking for their relatives and friends who could disappear in the occupied territory. According to human rights ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova, the free hotline has already received almost 6,500 search calls, both military and civilian. Therefore, almost 15 thousand people are wanted.
“We record every story as a war crime, because kidnapping people, taking them prisoner is a war crime. Then we transfer all information and materials about each person whom relatives are looking for to the Joint Center for the Release of Prisoners and Missing Persons. This the center collects all the information. The leadership sees which of the people were captured, then at the highest level an exchange list is formed. And it happens, of course, with the consent of the other side,” said Lyudmila Denisova
Lyudmila Denisova said that they are looking for the missing not only in Ukraine, but also in Russia and Belarus. For example, Ukrainian female prisoners of war were held in Bryansk.
Since the beginning of the war between Ukraine and Russia, there have been three exchanges of prisoners:
- The first full-fledged exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia took place on 24 Martha. Ten servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were exchanged for the same number of captured Russian invaders.
- At that time, 11 Russian civilian sailors rescued by Ukraine from a ship flooded near Odessa were also exchanged for 19 Ukrainian civilian sailors from the Sapphire rescue ship. The Russians seized it when the ship was trying to assemble the Ukrainian military from Zmiiny Island.
- April 1, during the exchange of prisoners, 86 people returned to Ukraine.
- April 9, Ukraine following the results of the third prisoner exchange with Russia returned 26 citizens, including 12 military and 14 civilians. How many people were handed over to Russia is not reported.
At the same time, the Minister for the Reintegration of the Occupied Territories, Irina Vereshchuk, noted that the kidnapped activists, journalists, officials, volunteers, etc. in the occupied cities cannot be considered prisoners of war. And the Ukrainian authorities cannot exchange them because of the lack of parity, because we do not carry out the abduction of the civilian population of Russia. Therefore, on the issue of their release, Ukraine turned to international organizations.
In addition, more than 600,000 Ukrainians were forcibly taken to the territory of the Russian Federation, of which 177,000 were children.
