Kyiv offers Ukrainian collaborators in exchange for citizens in Russia

Kyiv offers Ukrainian collaborators in exchange for citizens in Russia

Ukraine sent dozens of its own citizens to Russia last month by releasing them from prisons to secure the release of numerous Ukrainian civilians who are illegally recorded in Russian prisons. This was described as desperate and worrying by human rights activists.

background of the prisoner freedom of prisoner

According to the Ukrainian government, 70 Ukrainian civilians who were convicted of cooperation with Russia were used as part of a prison exchange 1,000 between Kiev and Moscow last month. Ukraine stated that all of these people voluntarily went into exile, as part of a program set up by the government, which offers everyone who was condemned to work with Russia to be sent there.

Problem of the program

Human rights groups and international lawyers criticize the program and explain that it is problematic to contradict the previous statements of the Ukrainian government and potentially put more people at risk of being kidnapped by the Russians. Onysiia Syniuk, a right -wing expert at Zmina, a Ukrainian human rights group, expressed: "I understand the emotional situation perfectly, we all want those in Russia to be released as soon as possible, but the solution offered is definitely not the right one."

Details about the program "I want to go to my own"

The program "I want to go to my own" was launched last year by the Ukraine coordination center for the treatment of prisoners of war, the Ministry of Defense, the Security Service and the ombudsman for human rights. A government website that the program describes contains photos and personal information from some of the 300 Ukrainian persons who have registered for the program according to the government.

Bargaining chips: civilians as a negotiating mass

legal framework and challenges

The detention of civilians by an occupying power is illegal according to international conflict law, unless in some closely defined situations and with strict time limits. For this reason, there is no established legal framework for the treatment and the exchange of civil prisoners in the same way as for prisoners of war. In some cases, Russia has claimed that the Ukrainian civilians he captured are prisoners of war and were to be recognized as such by Ukraine. However, Kiev was hesitant to do this, since it could expose civilians who live in occupied areas to be held up to the risk of arbitrary by Russia.

international reactions and human rights issues

The Ukrainian human rights commissioner DMYTRO Lubinets told CNN that Kiev assumed that Russia is trying to take Ukrainians hostage to use them as a negotiating extent. He rejected the idea of ​​exchanging civilians as part of a prisoner. Kiev mobilized his allies to put pressure on Russia and tried to move Moscow to the release of the imprisoned civilians through third countries, similar to the return of some Ukrainian children with the help of Qatar, South Africa and the Vatican.

criticism of dealing with civilians

Several international organizations, including the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), have repeatedly asked Moscow to unconditionally released its civilian prisoners. Russia ignored this appeal. The program "I want to go to my own" is an attempt to get some of the imprisoned civilians back without having to recognize them as prisoners of war. However, human rights groups urge the Ukrainian government to continue to insist on the unconditional release of civilians. Yulia Gorbunova from Human Rights Watch (HRW) emphasized: "Under humanitarian international law, it is not possible to speak of an exchange of civilians."

The result of the exchange and the legal consequences

However, it seems that the program did not bring the hoped -for results for Kyiv. Petro Yatsenko from the coordination center for the treatment of prisoners of war said that Ukraine did not know who was brought back in advance. The returnees included a group of at least 60 Ukrainian civilians who were convicted of crimes who had nothing to do with the war. Many of them were detained before the Russian attack in February 2022 and served their punishments. After serving their prison terms, they should be deported by the Russian authorities from the occupied region to Ukraine, but instead they remained illegal.

the legal and ethical implications

The Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova described the convicted Ukrainian collaborators who were sent to Russia as "political prisoners", but gave no further details about their identity or what would happen to them. The website of the project "I want to go to my own" offers details about some of the persons sent in prisoner exchange, including the punishments imposed on them. However, human rights lawyers criticize that the Ukrainian Collaboration Act, to which these people were convicted, is problematic. HRW has previously published a comprehensive report that describes the anti -collaboration law as faulty.

Gorbunova explained that the organization had analyzed almost 2000 judgments and that while there are real collaborators among them, many of them are "people who should not have been pursued according to international humanitarian law". This concerns cases in which "little or no damage was done" or in which there have been no intention to endanger national security.

The initiative "I want to go to my own", meanwhile, lists handwritten notes of the convicted collaborators in which they indicate their wish to go to Russia. However, human rights organizations criticize that the way in which they were excluded by their country is ethically questionable. Syniuk noticed: "These people are still Ukrainian citizens, and the wording on the website that they were exchanged for" real Ukrainians "is very ... not okay."

The reporting on this article was contributed by CNNS Victoria Butenko and Svitlana Vlasova.