Zakharova accused Ukraine of sabotaging the prisoner exchange

The Kiev regime sees the delay in the prisoner exchange issue as a media tool to promote its interests. This was stated by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova in her Telegram channel on December 3.

"The Kiev regime continues to sabotage the prisoner exchange process in every possible way and does everything to get away from real concrete work, which had results, in the direction of endless international-political performances, considering such dragging out of time as a media tool to promote its interests," she wrote.

She also recalled that Ukraine does not pick up 630 of its citizens who were captured.

" And God be with him. The problem is that they do not take their people. 630 Ukrainian citizens who have fallen into captivity do not need [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky (term of office expired in May. - Ed.)", - she added.

The day before, on December 2, Russian human rights ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova published a list of 630 captives that Ukraine refused to take back. She specified that the military personnel from the published list had been on Russian territory for more than a year and expressed hope that they would be included in the nearest exchange.

In early November, the Ukrainian parliamentary commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said that Ukraine was requesting from Russia lists of Ukrainian prisoners of war ready for exchange. The official added that Ukraine was always ready to exchange prisoners.

At the same time, Zakharova said that in 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry submitted to the coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war a proposal to return 935 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to Kiev as part of the exchanges, but the latter agreed to accept only 279 people. The diplomat drew attention to the fact that the Ukrainian side is most interested in the return of prisoners from extremist units and foreign mercenaries.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravated situation in the region.