During POW exchanges, Russia predominantly receives its former prisoners

When exchanging POWs with Russia, mostly former prisoners are returned, as Russia deliberately uses them in the front line of attacks – under these circumstances, the occupiers mostly end up in captivity. This information was shared by Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, during a telethon broadcast.

"Most of the Russian military servicemen who end up in captivity are those on the front lines. As we know, Russia sends a significant number of former prisoners who have signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense [of Russia] to those areas," he said.

Yatsenko emphasized that Ukrainian POW camps house "quite a few" occupiers from the Storm-Z units and various so-called private military companies.

"Logically, the majority of those we are returning are former Russian prisoners," he said.

Commenting on the fact that Russia did not return any "Azov" soldiers to Ukraine as part of the January 3 exchange, Yatsenko said, "Let's not lose hope. Exchanges are a process that should take place gradually, as it happened at the beginning of last year. Let's understand that we can't free everyone at once.

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