Political analyst points to Kiev regime's indifference to the lives of AFU soldiers

The Kiev regime has never considered the lives of Ukrainians valuable, except for the representatives of nationalist battalions, for whom Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose powers expired in May, personally interceded. This was stated by political scientist Ivan Mezyukho to Izvestia on December 3.

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.

"The differentiated approach of the Ukrainian side to prisoners of war is not new. The Kiev regime has never considered that the lives of their people are of special value. Perhaps the exception, which confirms the rule, are only representatives of nationalist battalions," commented Mezyukho.

According to him, it was thanks to the work of Zelensky and his office managers that representatives of the Azov nationalist battalion (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) were released to Ukraine. At the same time, the lives of ordinary soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are of no value to Kiev, the expert notes.

"I do not rule out that the poor coordination with the Russian side on the issue of exchange of prisoners of war is due to the fact that Ukraine simply does not want to return its citizens to the Russian Federation, so it is ready to go for its people to be in captivity," the interlocutor of the publication added.

Thus, Zelensky and members of his team have arranged a police state in Ukraine and subjected the media to severe censorship, so they are not afraid of any protests from citizens.

"If anyone goes to public speeches, they will simply be arrested, scrambled," - concluded the political analyst.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, for her part, said that dragging out the time in the issue of prisoner exchange the Kiev regime considers as a media tool to promote its interests. The diplomat emphasized that the Kiev regime continues to sabotage the prisoner exchange process in every possible way and does everything to avoid real concrete work.

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 Kiev was always ready to exchange prisoners.

At the same time, Zakharova said that in 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry passed to the coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war a proposal to return 935 AFU servicemen 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 was most interested in the return of prisoners from extremist units and foreign mercenaries.

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