Ombudsman: Ukraine gives Russia list of 800 wounded POWs for repatriation

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, said this during the nationwide news telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Speaking of the third round of negotiations with Russian human rights commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova, he said that the issue of repatriation of seriously wounded service members had been discussed among other things.

According to Lubinets, there was a moment during the negotiations when they ened the Geneva Conventions, compared different tions in different languages, and came to the conclusion that the prisoners of war, who are considered seriously wounded, should be handed over under the repatriation procedure.

"That is, it is not about a quantitative exchange, but rather about repatriation, without any conditions, to each of the parties. This initiative was voiced for the first time. And we gave the list of the Ukrainian army members who, in our inion, are wounded and seriously wounded. These are almost 800 wounded sdiers," the official said.

He added that the Ukrainian side received a similar list from the Russians and handed it over to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

"Our task is to get the list, hand it over, and then a decision will be made. But I believe that this is a positive step when the Russian side at least supported our initiative. And then we'll see what happens," the Ombudsman said.

Lubinets noted that he does not know what the Russian side's motives are: "It seems to me that, first of all, they also want to get their prisoners of war back. And, second, the time has probably come when, perhaps, the Russian side wants to show that they comply with the Geneva Conventions. At least, perhaps, they will fulfill them in this part and tell that they have always obeyed them."

As reported, according to Lubinets, from the list of missing Ukrainian sdiers, which our state handed over to the Russian side, 23 defenders turned out to be alive.