Lubinets: We do not allocate units of prisoners of war, but the priority in return is seriously wounded and women

Press conference of Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets in Mykolaiv on July 12, photo: NikVesti

Dmytro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, stated that he does not single out any military unit as a priority for exchange.

During his visit to Mykolaiv on Friday, July 12, he emphasized that, according to the Geneva Convention, the priority groups for return are the seriously wounded and women, NikVesti writes.

Dmytro Lubinets explained that these two categories of persons have the right to return without any conditions through the repatriation procedure. However, according to him, more than 400 Ukrainian women are currently in Russian captivity, and the position of the Russian Federation regarding their return remains unclear.

«On the basis of the Geneva Convention, there are two clear priorities for returning through the repatriation procedure (the process of returning to the homeland with the restoration of civil rights of prisoners of war and civilians, — note) seriously wounded prisoners of war and women without any conditions. Unfortunately, there are more than 400 Ukrainian heroines in Russian captivity. I do not understand the position of the Russian Federation, why they fundamentally do not want to return our heroines,» he said.

During the first public meeting with the Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tetiana Moskalkova, which took place on October 17, 2022 in the Zaporizhzhia region, it was possible to agree on the return of 108 Ukrainian women prisoners of war. Among them, for the first time, civilian hostages who were in Russian captivity before the start of full-scale aggression were returned.

He emphasized that the task of the coordination headquarters is the return of all Ukrainian citizens, regardless of their military affiliation.

«Do I see separate problems, for example, in the return of the defenders of Mariupol? Yes, I see. But I do not single out any military unit,» added Dmytro Lubinets.

We will remind that in March, the representative of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, accused the Russian side of delaying the exchange of prisoners. He said that, in addition to completely stopping the exchange of prisoners of war, the Russians began to mass appeal to the relatives of Ukrainian soldiers. According to him, they presented themselves as Russian proxies who allegedly want to return the Ukrainian military, and Ukraine refuses to take them back.