In Russia, there are discussions about whether to allow the Turkish ombudsman to visit Ukrainian prisoners of war on the territory of the Russian Federation, said Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets in an interview with Radio Free Europe.
"This is another element of our tactics on how to change the situation regarding the violation of the rights of prisoners of war in the territory of the Russian Federation. Again, you've seen only the public position. He came to Ukraine, announced his intentions to visit the territory of the Russian Federation. We've been working on this for many months," Lubinets said.
Dmytro Lubinets
"These were initially private meetings, discussions on whether he was willing to deal with this issue at all. I would like to separately thank my Turkish colleague because he didn't just agree. He personally came for four days, despite the fact that they saw that, on the one hand, the entire territory of Ukraine is under constant shelling, and, on the other hand, they had and have the holy month of Ramadan. But he came. After returning, he informed me that two days after his return, he had the first contact, discussion with the Russian side. Then they publicly showed that he met with Moskalkova, they discussed it. As of now, I have been informed that the Russian side has taken time to consider the Turkish side - namely, the ombudsman of Turkey - visiting Ukrainian prisoners of war on the territory of the Russian Federation. We are waiting," added the ombudsman.
Dmytro Lubinets also commented on the calls from the Pope to exchange prisoners in the format of "all for all". According to him, these are the results of Ukrainian side activities.
"I can't say that right now I have a feeling that we are on the verge of some major exchange of all for all. This doesn't mean that we are not working on it. But again, the only problem we face is the reluctance of the Russian side to conduct exchange processes," added the Ukrainian ombudsman.
