The process of exchanging Ukrainian prisoners for separatists and terrorists is non-transparent and is not compliant with criminal procedural legislation. The MP from the “Ukrainian Patriots Association – UKROP” Vitaliy Kupriy has written it on his Facebook page.
The MP has noted that today in Ukraine there is the only opportunity for prisoner exchange – after the court verdict by an act of the President’s exclusive right to grant pardon. However, we see that despite the law the separatists and terrorists’ accomplices are released or exchanged, while the procedure of pre-trial investigation is still ongoing.
The politician has also published the response of the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Grytsak to his parliamentary inquiry, and it states that in 2014-2016 1,569 people were detained according to the articles 207 and 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code, ie without the court verdict. At the same time the Security Service of Ukraine has no information about the detained terrorists, who were exchanged for the Ukrainian prisoners of war, the document says. “Most of them escaped punishment at all. In this regard, the Security Service does not want to show the real situation and hide this fact in every way,” stressed the MP.
As the reason for this Vitaliy Kupriy considers the authorities’ intentions to block legislative initiatives aimed at releasing the Ukrainian patriots from enemy captivity. In addition, as the MP emphasizes, because of the Ukrainian leaders’ unwillingness to recognize the war as a war, and Russia as an aggressor, Ukraine can not apply the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War to protect them, and that’s why we have to negotiate not with Russia, but with the leaders of the so-called LNR and DNR.
“Lacking officially assigned status of a “prisoner of war” prevents the Ukrainian side from using many other instruments defending the interests of its citizens, including international tribunals,” summed up the representative of UKROP.
It is to be recalled, in November 2016 the representatives of Kryvbas battalion together with the deputy of Kryvyi Rih City Council from UKROP Mykola Kolesnyk and mothers of the Ukrainian fighters, who are imprisoned by the terrorists, initiated a bill assigning the official status of a “prisoner”. This is necessary, in particular, for the families of the military, so that they could receive financial aid from the state.
