Russia is preparing information attack against Ukraine to justify disruption of prisoner exchange - Coordination Center

Russia is preparing a wave of disinformation about the disruption of prisoner exchanges. Moscow's goal is to destabilize the situation within Ukrainian society and sow distrust in the state.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War warned about this on December 3. "In the near future, the propaganda channels of the aggressor country will launch another wave of disinformation about the reasons for the suspension of prisoner of war exchanges. The goal of the Russian special services is to destabilize the situation within Ukrainian society and sow distrust in the state bodies that organize prisoner exchanges," the statement said.

The Coordination Headquarters added that since the summer of 2023, despite all Kyiv's efforts, Russia's authorized representatives have been systematically complicating the exchange process.

"In order to justify its inaction, the Russian side is preparing accusations against Ukraine," the agency said.

In particular, the Coordination Headquarters is being accused of overstating the requirements for the exchange formula and of intending to return all units without exception, including those that Moscow is particularly fond of in its propaganda.

The headquarters emphasized that the aggressor continues to violate all norms of international humanitarian law, using the issue of prisoners of war for ISIL against Ukrainians, especially against the vulnerable category - the families of prisoners and missing persons.

"Nothing has changed on our side in the negotiation process since we managed to bring home more than 300 of our defenders every month. The opposing side's attempts to justify itself rather than continue the humanitarian mission of exchanging prisoners indicate that they are not concerned about the fate of a large number of Russian prisoners of war who were captured on foreign soil, especially during the recent "meat assaults," as well as their families," the Coordination Headquarters said.

They also added that every prisoner or missing person, civilian and non-combatant taken hostage is important to Ukraine. And all Russian prisoners are held in accordance with international humanitarian law and have unimpeded access to the International Committee of the Red Cross missions, which the Russian side has not yet provided.

While Ukraine has a Coordination Center as the only authorized body, Russia has not yet been able to establish effective and unified work and communication.

"Ukraine and the Coordination Center are working every day to return all our defenders and search for missing persons. Negotiations with the opposite side are ongoing. We are ready to hand over Russian prisoners of war to their families only after returning our defenders home," the headquarters said.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, the Armed Forces of Ukraine urged Ukrainians not to share the data of prisoners and missing persons, as this could aggravate their situation. There are fraudsters or representatives of the Russian special services who can manipulate or blackmail online.

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