What stayed off camera during Russia’s “elections”: how the “Motherland” once again abandoned “its own”

What stayed off camera during Russia’s “elections”: how the “Motherland” once again abandoned “its own”

In recent weeks, there have been many rumors in Russia that immediately before the “elections” the Russian authorities would agree to a prisoner-of-war exchange that would also include members of “L/DNR” units. We can confirm that these were not just rumors.

There are a great many prisoners of war from “L/DNR” units in Ukrainian captivity. Most of them have not seen home for 3-4 years. They have repeatedly appealed personally to the Russian authorities asking to be exchanged (one, two, three, four). Their relatives have also been asking for this for years. Apparently, these appeals did not go entirely unnoticed.

Against the backdrop of constant interruptions in water, electricity, and fuel supplies, rising prices, industrial decline, and falling living standards, dissatisfaction among the local population is growing. Russia promised Donbas a “bright future,” but brought war, destruction, and poverty.

To improve their image at least somehow before the “elections,” according to our information, the Russian occupation administrations in the temporarily occupied territories asked Moscow to include prisoners of war from “L/DNR” units in the exchange lists. The exchange itself was supposed to take place before the “elections.”

Since Ukraine is interested in bringing its own servicemen back from Russian captivity, there are and have been no obstacles on our side to exchanging prisoners of war from “L/DNR” units. On the contrary, Ukraine has always supported carrying out exchanges in any format, including an “all for all” exchange.

It would seem to be a win-win situation for everyone: people who have been waiting for years to return home get a chance to come back, their families get a chance to see their loved ones, and the Kremlin gets a media “victory” in front of voters.

But the exchange kept being postponed again and again, and now the “elections” are coming to an end — and the expected exchange still has not happened.

And this raises a natural question: if the Russian authorities did not want to take these people back even when it could have brought them political dividends before the elections, are they planning to do it at all?

It turns out that even the possibility of using the prisoners’ return as a pre-election “handout” did not make Moscow remember its own servicemen.

And this is not only about prisoners of war from “L/DNR” units — prisoners of war from Russian regions have also been left “overboard” and, instead of returning home, continue to sit in captivity.

Ukraine’s offer of an exchange remains in force. Ukraine is ready to return these people home in exchange for Ukrainian defenders who are in Russian captivity. The decision is Moscow’s.

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WE ARE WORRIED ABOUT OUR LOVED ONES! Russian POWs’ appeal to Putin | “I Want to Live”

Russian Armed Forces prisoners of war held in one of the many camps in Ukraine recorded a video appeal to the Russian authorities. Some of them have been in captivity for years, but Russia is in no hurry to put them on the exchange lists.

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