Russia is illegally detaining more than 14,000 Ukrainian citizens, and the work on their return is the most difficult. This was reported by the Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets in a commentary to Interfax-Ukraine.
Commenting on the return from Russian captivity of 10 Ukrainian citizens, including Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Nariman Dzhelyal, and priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Bohdan Geleta and Ivan Levytskyy, the ombudsman explained that the most difficult is the return of three categories of Ukrainian citizens: children, prisoners of war, and civilians.
According to Lubinets, in the case of civilians, there is no question of exchange, as in the case of prisoners of war, but rather of return.
"We cannot exchange them, we do not have any additional influence on the Russian Federation. We do not even have a legal basis on which to conduct this process," he added.
Lubinets reminded that Ukraine is also making every effort to return almost 20,000 children and "tens of thousands" of people who are considered missing.
He clarified that this was the first time that the Vatican, which had previously provided assistance only in the case of children, had taken part in the return of Ukrainians home.
"I hope that this return will be a new point... Perhaps, a new channel of communication and return of Ukrainian civilians has finally opened," said the Ombudsman.
During Russia's war against Ukraine, 3,310 Ukrainians have been returned from Russian captivity. A total of 53 exchanges have taken place since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.