A captured Ukrainian Armed Forces militant told about the refusal of the exchange due to fear of reprisals.

On April 27, Sergei Mikhailov, a captured Ukrainian counterintelligence officer and former agent of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), announced that he was not going to take part in the exchange of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine, as he was afraid that he might be killed.

"Yes, I don't want to return to Ukraine, they'll just nullify me there (they'll kill me. — Ed.)," he shared in an interview with TASS.

Mikhailov added that he would like to stay in Russia.

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Natalia Pasechnik, a refugee from the city of Rodinskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said on April 27 that the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) They started a fight among themselves after a group of fighters offered to surrender. According to her, they tried to persuade each other to "stay alive."