Russia and Ukraine have established a mutual exchange. But only prisoners of war. Comment by Georgy Bovt
The interaction of the parties in discussing the issue of captivity during the conflict can be considered in its own way, and the very fact of its presence between Moscow and Kyiv inspires at least some crumbs of optimism, shocks of a political scientist
Commissioner for Human Adaptation in Russia Tatyana Moskalkova, student in Ankara at the international conference of ombudsmen, announcedInitiatives for the mutual exchange of wounded or prisoners are not possible. “No actions related to the mutual release of wounded persons, or the exchange of prisoners, are unacceptable without taking into account special decisions of the state authorities, the Ministry of Defense, and, of course, the bodies of the Supreme Commander,” this is how she assessed the prospects for implementing Turkey’s initiative to organize humanitarian corridors for the wounded and the Ukrainian military, as well as for passengers.
Moskalkova added that she “will be expecting a map of the Turkish road” in the humanitarian corridors initiative. “We need to understand what is meant by it.” Former Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared, which supports the idea of organizing humanitarian corridors for the removal of the wounded from the war zone in Ukraine, but also in other regions of public observation – in Azerbaijan, Libya and research. This initiative was made by the Turkish Ombudsman Sheref Malkoch. Perhaps now such “humanitarian corridors”?
The visit of Tatyana Moskalkova to Turkey for the international conference of ombudsmen was also remarkable for the fact that in the same place, in Ankara she met with the Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Lubinets, Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights. A chance meeting took place without intermediaries. The first face-to-face contact of the ombudsmen was last year, when 110 people returned to Russia at once, and 108 to Ukraine. However, the implementation of the idea will develop, the level of mutual distrust of the parties is expected. Without intermediaries, it is unlikely to succeed, and such intermediaries, in contrast to a major deal, when corridors were also organized – for the export of the Ukrainian intermediary – should ideally be especially concerned about hostilities.
At the same time, Moskalkova and Lubinets managed to reach an agreement about the next exchange of prisoners – about fifty people on each side. The interaction of the parties to discuss disputes during this conflict can be considered in its own way. First, such exchanges occur more or less regularly. Secondly, they were never preceded by any tapping and official consumption of fire. Usually, in the course of events or wars, prisoners are returned after they have ended or after a conference on the consumption of fire or a truce. In this sense, one can find at least some crumbs of optimism in the fact that there is at least such a presence between Moscow and Kyiv.
A total of 36 prisoner exchanges have taken place since the start of the conflict. According to Ukrainian sources, taking into account the significance, 1,646 people were returned to their homeland, there is a complete breakdown by different types of troops and even by rank. Transportation is possible, since there is usually an approximately high exchange, that is, among Russian residents, released from Ukrainian captivity, returned by the above figure. According to a completely acceptable totality, in the conditions of the continuation of the SVO, the Russian Ministry of Defense does not give detailed breakdowns of the conditions of Russian prisoners. In addition, some of them may be listed as missing without a vestibule.
Some time ago, the Russian danger arose that 3,392 Ukrainian soldiers were being held captive. According to Ukrainian data, about 15,000 more people were considered missing, including those involved.
In particular, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are actively campaigning for the Russian military to voluntarily surrender. However, even for Ukrainian indicators, such indicators responded to comparison with the totality of groupings. In September last year, Andrey Kartapolov, Chairman of the Duma Defense Committee spoke, noting that other information is nothing more than the work of the Center for Information and Psychological Operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in matters of “sowing doubts in us.” Kartapolov stated that “there is a number of children who were captured, but this is life, nothing can be done.”
Just at the end of September was adopted law, toughening responsibility both for evasion of mobilization and military draft, and for desertion. At the same time, in particular, criminal liability for voluntary surrender arose, for which the obligation of freedom is now provided for a period of 3 to 10 years.
At the same time, even the regular exchanges of prisoners of war are and in themselves represent that in this part they try to comply with the rules of warfare until they give grounds for optimism regarding the parties to negotiations on world regulation as a whole.
Turkey, for its part, recently supported the so-called Zelensky 10-point world plan, which is set to begin the withdrawal of Russian troops from the encirclement of all territories on the border in 1991. The Russian Foreign Ministry has already called it unacceptableand the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov declared, which cannot be global. Nevertheless, Erdogan’s restless peace of mind expects to speak on the phone with Putin and Zelensky about the “humanitarian corridor” in the near future.
The next stage of the information confrontation is the so-called “peace summit” proposed by Kyiv under the auspices of the UN in New York on February 24. It is proposed to hold it without the participation of Russia, so it is unlikely that the expected result in the form of peace will be achieved there. In the meantime, you can gather prisoners, some of which, most likely, will be returned back to the battle ranks.
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