Fake news is spreading about the exchange of prisoners of war – allegedly, as part of the prisoner exchange that took place on January 3, Ukraine managed to return only 173 people from captivity in exchange for 248 Russians.
Vladimir Rogov, who calls himself the head of the all-Russian public movement “We are together with Russia” and the head of the commission on issues of “sovereignty, patriotic projects and support for veterans of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation,” on the telegram channel of the same name, distributed a message about the exchange of prisoners, claiming that allegedly additionally the Russian Federation received 75 military for five Azovstal defense commanders who returned to Ukraine from Turkey in the summer, Rogov said, quotes edition 061.ua:
“The exchange of prisoners was carried out in the Belgorod direction, 248 Russians were exchanged for 173 prisoners of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Such numbers are not accidental; there are significantly more Russian soldiers, since 8 months ago they were supposed to return to Russia in exchange for five Azov militants. Then the representatives of the Zelensky regime, due to their natural stupidity, decided to “throw away” and not give up 75 Russians, having received five “Azovites”, thus all exchanges stopped. At the same time, Ukrainian information dumps said that exchanges are not carried out by Russians.”
It’s fake. In fact, 230 people returned to Ukraine, including: 130 military personnel, 55 national guardsmen, 38 border guards, 1 policeman and 6 civilians. The Center for Strategic Communications explains that the head of state and other structures involved in the exchange announced the return from captivity of exactly this number of Ukrainian fighters. StraCom noted:
“Russian propaganda with this lie is trying to create distrust in the Ukrainian authorities and impose the opinion that the Ukrainian authorities “do not care about the fate of prisoners.” “Such tales are spread by the Kremlin every time there is talk of a prisoner exchange.”
A representative of the Ukrainian coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war, Petr Yatsenko, said on November 17 that “Russia has imposed a freeze on the exchange of prisoners of war in the summer of 2023 for unspecified reasons. Over the past few weeks, there have been several incidents in which Russian troops have clearly violated the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, including the use former Ukrainian captives as human shields.”
The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War noted that January 3 exchange became the largest in terms of the number of returnees, including 130 representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Among them, 14 are from the terrorist defense and 14 are from the Navy; 55 National Guardsmen; 38 border guards; 1 policeman; 6 civilians illegally deprived of their liberty. Also returning home were, in particular, seven defenders of Zmeiny Island, a military orchestra musician, a Ukrainian Armed Forces servicewoman who was deprived of her freedom by the Russians while on maternity leave, and captured national guardsmen who were performing their duties at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
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