At the end of last week, Russia and Ukraine held the largest exchange since the beginning of a full -scale war – each of the parties transferred another thousand people. Moscow and Kyiv agreed to conduct an exchange at peace negotiations in Istanbul on May 16, which otherwise ended in nothing. The exchange according to the “1000 per 1000” formula was the sixth Russian-Ukrainian exchange since the beginning of 2025 and the 65th for more than three years of the war. It lasted three days, from May 23 to 25. On the first day, 390 people handed each other to each other, in the second – 307, in the third – 303 each. Russia announced the return of 880 military personnel and 120 civilians. Ukraine returned the same number of military and civilians, it follows from the messages of the Coordinating headquarters on the treatment of prisoners of war. The Russia received 120 civilians, which Kyiv transferred to Moscow, 70 turned out to be Ukrainians convicted of crimes against national security. One of them is Alexander Tarnashinsky, an activist of the Ukrainian Choice of the Prossensky politician Viktor Medvedchuk and the head of the Slavic movement “Rus revived” ”. After the start of the war, he was accused of trying to create pseudo -sophisticated bodies in Ukraine – the “Council of Elders” and “Higher Spiritual Council” – and sentenced to five years of conclusion. For example, Ukraine transferred to Russia Vasily Meched, a former employee of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, who was about 15 years of Russian special services, and Ukrainians who worked with “new authorities” on the Russian Cabinet. occupied territories, reported about military facilities of the Armed Forces or wrote pro -Russian posts in social networks. Among them, for example, a 61-year-old resident of Kherson, who worked as a driver in the police department during the city occupation. Tatyana Moskalkova, who was completed for human rights in Russia, said that “and 20 Kursk residents” and 20 Kursk residents released by Ukraine. These are pensioners from the border regions of the Kursk region, which the Armed Forces captured in the summer of 2024 and held until the spring of 2025. When asked why the refugees were on the exchange list, an unnamed lawyer in a conversation with the Agency suggested that they “did not return, because (this) is difficult to logistics without help.” Ukraine received it. Military Eustrals of the liberated Ukrainian military 311 have been captured in captivity since 2022, 122 – from 2023 and 150 – from 2024, the headquarters for prisoners of war said. He also emphasized that in the framework of a large exchange of home, the military of 46 parts of the Armed Forces returned, of which Russia had not given anyone before. At the same time, there was no Azov Ukrainian brigade, which defended Mariupol in 2022. “It looks like a mockery. Over those who have been under inhuman pressure in Russian captivity for the fourth year. Above their relatives, friends and combat comrades. Those who were given guarantees and who have the absolute right to be priority for exchanges, because they surrendered not by their own free will, but by order of the highest command, ”said Denis Prokopenko, commander of the 1st Corps of the National Guard. In their lists of those who were considered necessary. He expressed the opinion that Russia does not free the “sensitive” prisoners to sow the split in Ukraine. The Kremlin has other reasons to hide the “Azovites” – for example, because they are “living proof” of Russian war crimes, said Alexander Romantsov, the executive director of the Ukrainian “Civil Freedom Center”. Prokopenko believes that Russia’s unwillingness to give Azov fighters is not an excuse: “Russians refuse to exchange the Azovs for ordinary soldiers? So, you need to offer them someone who is more important to them. Ukraine is crowded with the Russian agent – all special services are well aware of this, they just need to give a team. I think that the priests of the Moscow Patriarchate, who openly work for Russian special services, could interest Russia more than soldiers. It would not be superfluous to consider the possibility of Ukraine’s participation in the exchanges between Western allies and Russia. ”For all, Moscow, apparently, returned to Kyiv Anatoly Taranenko, a former Ukrainian military, who in 2021 switched to the side of the self -proclaimed DPR and became the hero of the publications of Russian propaganda. Even Oleg Tsarev, in the past, was surprised by one of the leaders of the Donbass separatists: “It is impossible to explain why it was necessary to promote this prisoner for so long to exchange it later.” The Ukrainian military was also outraged by the return of the “bastard”. Andrei Yusov repeated to criticism: “We could not influence the lists,” and promised that law enforcement agencies would pay attention to Taranenko. Ukraine received attention. Civilian list of the Russian list for the exchange was missing not only the “Azovites”, but also civilians who were concluded until 2022. “Some of these people helped our special services in those years when the generation of those who are now worried was sore, what was happening in the Donbass. I don’t know if there is someone who sits longer in the history of this 11-year war. Plane is an objective criterion, and if the state takes civilian (and it takes them), it is unacceptable to ignore those who are captured the longest, ”said the writer and journalist Stanislav Aseev, who himself served in the DPR for two and a half years. The work was also caused by the fact that civil Ukrainians did not get into the metropolitan fund, captured by the occupied territories for “unreliability” after 2022. Such people (according to various estimates, there are from 7 to 18 thousand) often simply disappear, they are kept in isolation and in terrible conditions, without against formal accusations. They can be exchanged for civil Ukrainians convicted of collaboration, or to civilian Russians – but there are few of them in Ukraine, therefore, only 174 people have been released so far, they explained to the headquarters for prisoners of war. At 120 civilian, “there is not a single person whom Russia would not send without this exchange,” the expert of the Center for Civil Liberties told Mikhail Savva. According to human rights activists, citizens of Ukraine returned from Russia who were serving a sentence in the occupied territories (and were taken to Russia) or in Russia itself for the crime not related to the war. After the release, they are subject to sending to their homeland. Before the war, they could leave themselves, but now they are kept in centers of temporary maintenance of foreign citizens (TsVSIG). Mediazona spoke with several civil Ukrainians who were exchanged. One of them, 48-year-old Sergey Slutny, left for 13 years for murders, and after liberation in the fall of 2024 he got into the Tambov TsVSIG, where he was recruited to the war. He said that the Ukrainians were returning to their homeland before, but officially they were not entered in exchange lists and were released as if “additionally”. Why this time Russia officially included them in its exchange fund is unknown. “A fantastic way (we got in exchange). We without even knowing, not wondering how it turned out, ”the dissolved admitted. (Tagstotranslate) News
