Russia has suspended the exchange of prisoners of war to create the impression that the Ukrainian authorities are not dealing with this issue. Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said this in an interview with Suspilne.

"They are trying to convince us that nothing is happening, look! But in fact, the work is going on, we are not sitting idly by, we are constantly working to organize the next exchanges," he said.

Yatsenko emphasized that Ukraine is ready for dialogue and puts forward certain proposals to the Russians.

"We demonstrate our proposals. For example, we have set up a coordination headquarters together with the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Ukrainian authorities have created so-called mixed medical commissions, a tool provided for in the Third Geneva Convention. This is a commission consisting of two representatives of a neutral country and one representative of the holding country, i.e. Ukraine," the official explained.

According to Yatsenko, a similar commission should also be formed by the Russian side so that these commissions, when visiting places of detention, can identify prisoners of war in need of medical care and repatriated.

The representative of the headquarters also said that Ukraine sent an open letter to Russia on behalf of the Secretary of the Coordination Headquarters, General Dmytro Usov.

"We emphasize that Russia must also fulfill its international agreements and arrangements that it has signed. They constantly claim at the diplomatic level, at the UN, for example, that they comply with everything. We show that de facto they are not, nothing is happening," Yatsenko added.