From: New Voice of Ukraine 🇺🇦 Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that Russia is illegally holding more than 14,000 Ukrainian citizens, and the work on their return is the most difficult, Interfax-Ukraine reported on June 30.
“Returning three categories of Ukrainian citizens — children, prisoners of war, and civilians — is most difficult with civilians,” Lubinets said, because it is not an exchange, as with prisoners of war, but rather a return.
“We cannot exchange them; we do not have any additional influence on Russia,” he added.
“We do not even have a legal basis on which to conduct this process.”
Commenting on the recent return of civilians, Lubinets noted that this was the first time the Holy See took part, previously providing assistance only for the return of children.
Ukraine managed to return ten people from Russian captivity on June 28. Among them were political prisoners who had been illegally imprisoned by the Russians before the invasion
Voice of Ukraine 