Qatar hands lists of missing soldiers and letters from Ukrainian POWs to Ukraine – Ombudsman Lubinets

Dmytro Lubinets, the Human Rights Commissioner of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, received lists of missing Ukrainian service members and letters from prisoners of war through Qatar.

Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reported that on Telegram.

Lubinets mentioned that while in Qatar, he had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lolwah Rashid Mohammed Al-Khater.

They discussed the prospects of speeding up prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

"Thanks to the efforts of our main intermediary, through Qatar, I managed to obtain lists of missing servicemen, as well as letters from Ukrainian prisoners of war to their relatives and discuss the possibility of speeding up the process of exchanging prisoners of war," the ombudsman informed.

According to him, Ukraine and Qatar worked out agreements to assist civilians under challenging situations, particularly assistance in restoring documents.

As reported, Qatar is a critical mediator in various international hostage crisis events, using its unique geopolitical position and relationships with multiple actors.

For reference:

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukraine and Russia have carried out 58 prisoner exchanges, resulting in the return of 3,767 Ukrainians from Russian imprisonment.

The last exchange of prisoners took place on the night of October 19. 95 Ukrainian soldiers, including defenders of "Azovstal" and renowned human rights activist Maksym Butkevych, returned to their homeland after being held captive in Russia. This marks the 58th exchange of prisoners of war in Ukraine's "95 for 95" format.

Soldiers who defended Mariupol and "Azovstal," Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson regions were among them.

The headquarters said that the peculiarity of this exchange was that among the released defenders, there were soldiers who received the so-called "sentences" of the judicial system of the aggressor country of Russia. Among the released prisoners were "convicted":

• 28 – to long terms,
• and 20 – to life imprisonment.

34 soldiers of the 12th brigade of the Azov National Guard, who participated in the defense of Mariupol in the spring of 2022, were able to return home.

The Angels Patronage Service added that they are deeply grateful for the help and comprehensive support in organizing the exchange to the United Arab Emirates.

However, Ukraine already knows about more than a hundred cases of executions by the Russian military of soldiers of the Defense Forces who surrendered as prisoners.