Russia ignored the proposal for exchanging Muslim and Catholic captives
This was reported by LB.ua, citing Dmitry Lubinets, Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights.
"Tomorrow, Muslims around the world will celebrate the end of fasting - Eid al-Fitr. Moreover, on March 31, Catholics celebrated Easter. On this occasion, Ukraine initiated the exchange of prisoners of war who profess Islam and are Catholics," he wrote.
He also noted that the list proposed by Ukraine for exchange to the Russian side includes 1 Catholic and 146 Muslims. However, the proposed lists were ignored by Russia.
"As we can see, even the message from the Pope did not motivate the Russians to carry out the exchange either according to the "all for all" formula or under other conditions. Despite such unreasonable behavior by the Russian side, Ukraine expresses its readiness to carry out the exchange according to the "all for all" formula on the occasion of Orthodox Easter," added Lubinets.
He mentioned that this proposal was sent to the Russian side.
"I also join it, and from my side, I will additionally address T. Moskalkova, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation," the Ombudsman stated.
On March 31, Pope Francis, in his Easter message, urged Russia and Ukraine to conduct a prisoner exchange according to the "all for all" formula.
The Coordination Headquarters for Prisoners of War Affairs responded that Ukrainian officials have repeatedly expressed readiness to conduct a prisoner exchange according to the principle of "all for all," but Russia does not want to return its people.
On February 8, an exchange of prisoners of war was conducted, as a result of which another 100 of our soldiers returned home from Russian captivity. These are soldiers and sergeants. Most of them are defenders of Mariupol and "Azovstal," soldiers of the National Guard, the State Border Guard Service, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Before that, on January 31, Ukraine returned home 207 captives.
In total, as of February, 3135 Ukrainian men and women have been released from Russian captivity, as stated by Zelensky.
