UKRAINE, KYIV, Nov 21 – As of November 2024, 3,767 Ukrainian citizens have been released from captivity since the beginning of the war, including those who were taken into captivity since 2014. This figure includes 168 civilians, and all others are military, said Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, during a conference in Kyiv.

Dmytro Lubinets said that all these prisoners of war were released only through prisoner exchanges since Russia does not release the severely injured, although the Geneva Convention requires it.

“It is logical that people with amputations, for example, will not be able to continue serving, but Russia continues to hold and torture them,” said Dmytro Lubinets.

At the same time, Lubinets did not name the exact number of prisoners still held by Russia. However, according to him, there are tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, both civilian and military.

“The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only tool for obtaining official information about prisoners from Russia. So even when we see videos on the Internet that clearly show that a person is in captivity, until the ICRC officially informs us about it, the status of a missing person remains [valid — ed.]. And because of the work of this organization, we do not have official numbers today, and this, among other things, creates new difficulties in the exchange,” Lubinets said.

He added that 95% of all prisoners of war are tortured in captivity.

On November 19, the Media Initiative for Human Rights reported that “Moscow Conventions,” a collection of articles based on the testimonies of former prisoners of war and their relatives, was presented in Kyiv, Ukraine. It contains 15 stories of former Ukrainian POWs who went through torture and other instances of Russia violating the Geneva Conventions. 

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