What’s behind it? – Prisoner exchange: Moscow increases pressure

“Unfortunately, exchanges with Ukraine, which is constantly making new false demands, have been stopped for several months,” Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said during a parliamentary session on Wednesday. The human rights commissioners of both countries would continue to visit prisoners of war from the other side on a daily basis to monitor compliance with their rights.

RT boss holds the list in the camera
Moskalkova gave no further details about Kiev’s alleged demands. The editor-in-chief of state broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonyan, had earlier published a list of 500 captured Ukrainian soldiers. She claimed that from this list, Kiev selected only 38 fighters of the Azov nationalist regiment for the exchange list and rejected the rest. She did not provide evidence for her statement.

Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for more than two years and currently occupies about a fifth of the neighboring country. The exact number of POWs on both sides is unknown, but observers say the Russians took several times as many POWs as Ukraine.

Calculation is probably in the foreground
The accusations from Moscow are probably mainly aimed at further destabilizing the situation in Kiev and increasing pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The topic is explosive in Ukraine. Zelensky has repeatedly promised to return all captured soldiers home. The last exchange between the two countries took place in February 2024.