Russia holds over 14,000 Ukrainian civilians in captivity - Lubinets

This was stated by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets during a press conference, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I publicly say that more than 14,000 civilians of Ukraine are in Russian captivity. This number includes citizens who have been detained by the Russian Federation since 2014 on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (we have a separate list), in Donetsk and Luhansk regions (we also have a separate list) and after the start of full-scale aggression," Lubinets said.

According to him, even in the Kyiv region, which was the least under Russian occupation, about 600 Ukrainian civilians were taken prisoner by Russia.

The Ombudsman noted that civilians are the most difficult category to return.

"First, according to international humanitarian law, we cannot conduct exchanges. This is defined exclusively for prisoners of war. Secondly, everyone understands that there are not many Russian citizens whom Russia would like to take back, when it comes to civilians. Third, court sentences. They pass long sentences against our civilians, accusing them of espionage, terrorist activities, financing of terrorist organisations, anything. The main thing for them is to give long prison terms - 15, 17, 18, 20, 25 years," Lubinets said.

According to him, there are also cases when children were detained and are currently under investigation.

"These are citizens of Ukraine under the age of 18, who can also receive long prison sentences. We also have two cases where two boys were shot in Berdiansk. They were children, both under our and Russian law. They were 18 years old. And the Russians do not even allow us to take the bodies of these two boys to bury them," the ombudsman said.

He assumes that Russia wants to bury the bodies of these two boys in secret so as not to hand them over to their families.

As Ukrinform reported, as a result of the 53rd exchange, ten political prisoners of the Kremlin and illegally convicted Ukrainians were released from Russian captivity on the evening of 28 June.