Russia and Ukraine Exchange Equal Numbers of Prisoners of War, Says Russian Human Rights Commissioner

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. Russia and Ukraine are handing over to each other an equal number of prisoners of war during exchanges, Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Yana Lantratova told TASS in an interview, commenting on statements about the disproportion of the exchanges.

"[Since my appointment] we have brought 550 of our guys back home. And we have handed over 550 Ukrainians," Lantratova said. She emphasized that the Defense Ministry and relevant special services, with the participation of the institution of the Commissioner for Human Rights, play a key role in prisoner exchanges. "From the standpoint of [exchanging] civilians, this is probably primarily the task of the ombudsman institutions," Lantratova noted.

"We have managed to establish close communication with the Ukrainian ombudsman [Dmitri Lubinets]. We are regularly in touch. We have agreed to start working, as they say, from a clean slate. The first thing we do is exchange lists of missing persons," Lantratova said.

"We promptly check whether they are in captivity or whether they are not on the territory of Ukraine. That is the first such area - the verification of these lists," she added.