Ukraine and Russia clash over prisoners of war

Ukraine on Sunday rejected claims by the Russian Foreign Ministry that it did not want to take back hundreds of prisoners of war proposed for an exchange.

"We are ready to carry out an exchange of prisoners of war at any time! We adhere to the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law!" Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinez wrote on Telegram.

"As a rule, these processes are slowed down by the Russian Federation. And it uses this as a method to influence Ukrainian society!"

On Saturday afternoon, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said during a hastily convened video conference with correspondents from several countries that Russia had recently proposed 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war for exchange.

However, she claimed Kiev had only wanted 279 of the prisoners back, most of whom were ultranationalist fighters. Zakharova claimed that the remaining 650-plus men were not considered "worthy" by Kiev or were even described as "traitors."

Zakharova accused Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha of "political tourism" because he repeatedly uses the issue of prisoners of war as an opportunity to travel abroad to stir up sentiment against Moscow.

She said Russia had always implemented the exchange of prisoners through the mediation of other states and was still willing to do so.

Such exchanges are the last forum in which Moscow and Kiev still have contact. After the more than two and a half years of Russia's war on Ukraine, thousands of families are waiting for their relatives to return from captivity.

Both warring parties have already exchanged prisoners several times – a total of thousands so far. It is unclear how many prisoners both sides currently hold.