Currently, over 400 Ukrainian women are held captive in Russian captivity. Many of them are unlawfully detained civilians, according to the The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (KSHPPV) .
As of now, Russians are holding 403 Ukrainian women in captivity. Among the captives are those whose fate has been unknown since 2014, disappeared without a trace. Despite numerous appeals demanding the return of the captives, the Russian side responds with silence and ignores all requests.
"The conditions of detention of Ukrainian women in Russian captivity do not comply with the Third Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war," emphasized the Headquarters.
Women released from captivity assert, among other things, humiliation, inhumane conditions of detention, inadequate food, inability to receive qualified medical assistance, and contact with relatives.
Additionally, Russians continue to prohibit representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross access to places of detention of prisoners and civilians, numbering over 100 in the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied territories.
"The Ukrainian side has repeatedly proposed to Russia to release women as a priority; instead, representatives of the aggressor country engage in manipulation, including the publication of various lists. But behind all this lies the unwillingness to continue exchanges," explained military officials.
The Headquarters emphasized that women, as well as severely wounded and seriously ill individuals according to international humanitarian law, should be released from captivity or repatriated to neutral countries as a priority.
Meanwhile, official representatives of Russia pretend they have not read international agreements signed by their country and have no intention of fulfilling them.
Recently, the Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced that Ukraine expects positive news regarding the return of children and other citizens deported by Russia.
For more detailed information on this issue and when to expect updates, you can find out from the material by RBC-Ukraine.
Countries have conducted a series of exchanges of prisoners of war. However, over the past year, Moscow has increasingly been blocking the possibility of exchanges.
For instance, on Catholic Easter, March 31, the Pope called on Ukraine and Russia to exchange all for all. Ukrainian authorities responded to this by stating their support for the initiative, but Russia, in its traditional manner, opposed it.