CNN
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Ukraine sent dozens of citizens to Russia last month to release them from prison to secure the release of dozens of Ukrainian civilians illegally detained in Russian prisons.
According to the Ukrainian government, the 70 Ukrainian civilians convicted of cooperation with Russia were released last month as part of 1,000 prisoner exchanges between Kiev and Moscow.
Ukraine said they all voluntarily defected asylum as part of a government plan that would give the option of being sent there to those convicted of working with Russia.
However, human rights groups and international lawyers say the scheme is problematic, contradicting previous statements made by the Ukrainian government, potentially putting more people in danger of being taken away by Russians.
“I fully understand the sentiment. We all want to release people who are detained in Russia (and are detained in Russia) as soon as possible, and Russia has no intention of doing so…but the solutions offered are definitely not the right one.”
The programme, called “I Want to Go to Myth,” was launched last year by Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the POWs, the Ministry of Defence, the Security Bureau and the Human Rights Commissioners of Parliament.
The government’s website, which outlines the program, contains photos and personal information of some of the 300 Ukrainians who the government says they have signed up for the program.
Of these, 31 profiles are engraved with a photograph of a suitcase and the word “I left,” and a note that “the real Ukrainian left to Russia at the same time he returned to his home.”
According to Kyiv, at least 16,000 Ukrainian civilians are known to be detained in Russia, but the actual number could be much higher. Approximately 37,000 Ukrainians, including civilians, children and military members, are officially recognized as missing.
Many were detained in occupied territories, detained for months or years without charges or trial, and deported to Russia. They include activists, journalists, priests, politicians, community leaders, and people who appear to have been taken away at random checkpoints and other parts of Ukraine by Russian troops.
Detention of civilians by right of occupation is illegal under international dispute law, except for some narrowly defined circumstances and strict time limits.
So there is no established legal framework for the treatment and exchange of civil detainees, just as it is for prisoners of war.
Russia has argued that in some cases the Ukrainian civilian it holds is prisoner of war and should be recognized as such by Ukraine. Kiev was reluctant to do so as it could put civilians living in occupied areas in Ukraine at risk of being detained arbitrarily in Russia as they attempt to cultivate pools for future exchanges.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets told CNN last year that Kiev believed Russia was holding Ukrainians hostages and using them as negotiation tips, and he rejected the idea of swapping civilians as part of the prisoner exchange.
Kiev tried to unite their allies to increase pressure on Russia on the issue, and agreed to Moscow to release detained civilians through third countries, similar to how Ukrainian children were returned with the help of Qatar, South Africa and the Vatican.
Several international organisations, including the United Nations and the European Security Cooperation Agency (OSCE), have also repeatedly called on Moscow to unconditionally release civilian detainees.
Russia ignored the plea.
The “I Want to Go to Myth” program is an attempt to bring some of the detained civilians back to their lie without recognizing them as prisoners of war.
However, human rights groups are urging the Ukrainian government to continue to ask for the unconditional release of civilians. “Under international humanitarian law, we cannot talk about the exchange of civilians. All civilians who are illegally detained must be released unconditionally,” said Yulia Gorbunova, a senior Ukrainian researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“However, in reality, things are much more difficult because Russia is not based on rules. For Ukrainian civilians, being included on the exchange list is their main hope. I think this scheme is an attempt to find a way to do this,” she told CNN.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who announced 1,000 in exchange for 1,000, hinted like that.
“I would like to thank law enforcement officers today for adding Russian destroyers and collaborators to the exchange fund,” the president said, but thanking Ukrainian soldiers for capturing Russian troops on the frontline.
However, the scheme does not seem to have brought about the results Kiev wanted.
Petro Yatsenko of Ukrainian Coordination HQ for the Treatment of Ukrainian prisoners said CNN Ukraine was not aware of its time.
The returnees included a group of at least 60 Ukrainian civilians convicted of criminal offences not related to the war, according to the headquarters.
Andri Yusov, vice-chief of headquarters, told CNN that many of them had been found guilty by Ukrainian courts and sentenced them to Ukrainian prisons when Russia launched a full-scale, unprovoked violation in February 2022 and occupying the detained areas.
After completing their sentence, Russian authorities were to deport these prisoners from the occupied territory back to Ukraine. Instead, it was illegally held in detention centers normally used for illegal immigrants and released only as a portion of 1,000 for 1,000 prisoner swaps.
Tatyana Moskalkova, the Russian Rights Commissioner, said that the convicted Ukrainian collaborators had sent to Russia as “political prisoners,” but did not give any further details about who they are or what will happen next.
Moskalkova’s office did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
The “I Want to Go to Myth” website provides details of what was sent to Russia in prison exchanges, including the crimes that were convicted. Many were serving years of prison sentences for collaboration with Moscow. Some were found guilty of supporting the invasion and sharing information with Russian troops. He was sentenced to five to eight years in most prisons.
However, human rights lawyers say that the Ukrainian cooperation law, which these people have been declared, is a problem in itself.
HRW previously published extensive reports criticizing the anti-article fire law, calling it a flaw.
Gorbunova said the group analyzed verdicts of nearly 2,000 people, and while there were real collaborators among them, many of them “should not have been prosecuted under international humanitarian law.”
She said these include cases where there was “least or no harm” or that there was no intention to harm national security. Some cases involve people who worked in public services in areas that were occupied at the time and simply kept their jobs.
“We help people on the streets, people with illnesses and disabilities, people who distribute humanitarian aid. Teachers, firefighters, local government workers collecting trash, that type of thing – they could be convicted of working for occupation as collaborators,” she said.
“That doesn’t mean there are no actual collaborators who committed crimes against national security. They should be punished (but) because the law is so vague that it is possible that a very wide range of activities of people who work and work in the profession can be recognized as collaboration.
The initiative’s website contains handwritten notes from each convicted collaborator showing hopes of leaving in Russia, but human rights groups say the way they were denied by their country is ethically questionable.
Syniuk told CNN: “These people are still Ukrainian citizens and the words on the website were exchanged for “real Ukrainians.”
