Introduction
Introduction Statistics Contact Development Disclaimer Help
.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Desperate to get its illegally detained civilians out of Russia, Kyiv
offers Ukrainian collaborators in exchange
By Ivana Kottasová, CNN
Updated:
5:44 AM EDT, Sun June 8, 2025
Source: CNN
Ukraine sent dozens of its own citizens to Russia last month, releasing
them from prisons in an attempt to secure the release of dozens of
Ukrainian civilians held illegally in Russian jails – a move
described by human rights activists as desperate and worrying.
According to the Ukrainian government, 70 Ukrainian civilians convicted
of collaborating with Russia were released as part of the between Kyiv
and Moscow last month.
Ukraine said all of them went into exile voluntarily, as part of a
government scheme that gives anyone convicted of collaborating with
Russia the option of being sent there.
But human rights groups and international lawyers say the scheme is
problematic, contradicts previous statements made by the Ukrainian
government, and could potentially put more people at risk of being
snatched by the Russians.
“I completely understand the sentiment, we all want the people (who
are detained in Russia) to be released as quickly as possible and
Russia has no will to do that… but the solution that is offered is
definitely not the right one,” said Onysiia Syniuk, a legal analyst
at Zmina, a Ukrainian human rights group.
The program, called “I want to go to my own,” was launched last
year by Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of
Prisoners of War, the Ministry of Defense, the Security Service and the
parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights.
A government website outlining the program includes photos and personal
information of some of the 300 Ukrainian people that the government
says have signed up to the program.
The profiles of 31 of them are stamped with a picture of a suitcase and
the words “HAS LEFT,” with a note saying he or she “left for
Russia while at the same time real Ukrainians returned home.”
Bargaining chips
According to Kyiv, at least 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are known to be
detained in Russia, although the real number is likely to be much
higher. Some 37,000 Ukrainians, including civilians, children and
members of the military, are officially recognized as missing.
Many have been detained in occupied territories, detained for months or
even years without any charges or trial, and deported to Russia. They
include activists, journalists, priests, politicians and community
leaders as well as people who appear to have been snatched by Russian
troops at random at checkpoints and other places in occupied Ukraine.
The detention of civilians by an occupying power is illegal under
international laws of conflict, except for in a few narrowly defined
situations and with strict time limits.
Because of that, there is no established legal framework for the
treatment and exchange of civilian detainees in the same way there is
for prisoners of war.
Russia has, in some cases, claimed that the Ukrainian civilians it is
holding are prisoners of war and should be recognized as such by
Ukraine. Kyiv has been reluctant to do so because it could put
civilians living in occupied areas of Ukraine at risk of being
arbitrarily detained by Russia as it seeks to grow its pool for future
exchanges.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets told CNN last
year that Kyiv believes Russia has been taking Ukrainians hostage to
use them as bargaining chips, and that he rejected the idea of
exchanging civilians as part of a prisoner swap.
Kyiv has rallied its allies to increase pressure on Russia over the
issue and tried to get Moscow to agree to release the detained
civilians through third countries, similar to the way some Ukrainian
children have been returned with the help of Qatar, South Africa and
the Vatican.
Several international organizations, including the United Nations and
the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), have
also repeatedly called on Moscow to unconditionally release its
civilian detainees.
Russia has ignored the pleas.
The “I want to go to my own” program is an attempt by Kyiv to get
some of the detained civilians back without having to recognize them as
prisoners of war.
But human rights groups are urging the Ukrainian government to continue
to press for unconditional release of civilians. “Under international
humanitarian law, it is not possible to talk about exchanging
civilians. All civilians unlawfully detained must be released
unconditionally,” said Yulia Gorbunova, a senior researcher on
Ukraine at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“But in practice, things are a lot more difficult because Russia is
not playing by the rules. For Ukrainian civilians, to be included on an
exchange list is their main hope. I think the scheme is an attempt to
find a way to do this,” she told CNN.
Announcing the 1,000 for 1,000 exchange, Ukraine’s President
Volodymyr Zelensky hinted as much.
“I would like to thank our law enforcement officers today for adding
Russian saboteurs and collaborators to the exchange fund,” the
president said, while also thanking Ukrainian soldiers for capturing
Russian troops on the front lines.
‘Political prisoners’
But it seems that the scheme did not yield the results Kyiv was hoping
for.
Petro Yatsenko from the Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the
Treatment of Prisoners of War told CNN Ukraine did not know ahead of
the time who was being returned.
The headquarters said the returnees included a group of at least 60
Ukrainian civilians who were convicted of criminal offenses unrelated
to the war.
The headquarters’ deputy head, Andriy Yusov, told CNN many of them
had been convicted by Ukrainian courts and were serving sentences in
Ukrainian prisons when Russia launched its full-scale, unprovoked
invasion in February 2022 and occupied the areas where they were
detained.
After completing their sentences, Russian authorities were supposed to
deport these prisoners from the occupied territories back to Ukraine.
Instead, it kept them, unlawfully, in detention centers normally used
for illegal immigrants and only released them as part of the 1,000 for
1,000 prisoner swap.
The RussianHuman Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova described the
convicted Ukrainian collaborators sent to Russia as “political
prisoners,” but did not give any more details on who they were or
what would happen to them next.
Moskalkova’s office did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
The “I want to go to my own” website gives details of some those
sent to Russia in the prisoner exchange, including the offenses they
were convicted of. Many were serving years-long sentences for
collaboration with Moscow. Some were convicted of supporting the
invasion or sharing information with Russian troops. Most received
sentences of between five and eight years in prison.
But human rights lawyers say the Ukrainian collaboration law under
which these people were sentenced is itself problematic.
HRW has previously issued an extensive report criticizing the
anti-collaboration law, calling it flawed.
Gorbunova said the group analyzed close to 2,000 verdicts and that
while there were genuine collaborators among them, a lot of them were
“people who, under international humanitarian law, should not have
been prosecuted.”
She said these included cases where there’s been “little or no harm
done” and or where there was no intent to harm national security.
Some of the cases involve people who had been working in public service
in areas that were then occupied and who had simply continued doing
their jobs.
“Helping people on the streets, people who are sick or have
disabilities, distributing humanitarian aid. Teachers, firefighters,
municipal workers who collect trash, that type of thing – they could
be convicted of working for the occupation as collaborators,” she
said.
“That is not to say that there are no actual collaborators who commit
crimes against national security…who should be punished, (but) this
legislation is so vague that essentially a very wide range of
activities of people living and working under occupation could qualify
as collaboration, which is troubling and problematic,” she said.
While the initiative’s website includes what it says are handwritten
notes from each of the convicted collaborators indicating their wish to
leave for Russia, human rights organizations say the way in which they
have been disowned by their country is ethically dubious.
Syniuk told CNN: “These people are still Ukrainian citizens, and the
wording that they have on the website is that they were exchanged for
‘real Ukrainians’– that is very … not okay.”
<- back to index
You are viewing proxied material from codevoid.de. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.