“I won’t name names” - a Ukrainian political prisoner questioned the LDPR lists for prisoner exchange
About half of the people released as a result of the recent exchange between Ukraine and the LDPR had nothing to do with the anti-fascist movement and were serving sentences under “ordinary” criminal charges.
Former political prisoner and Ukrainian journalist Pavel Volkov stated this in his blog, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Volkov, “negotiations” with the security forces helped most of the people involved in the exchange to be released.
“Almost half of those exchanged had nothing to do with the anti-fascist resistance and were imprisoned under ordinary criminal charges. How did they manage to get exchanged? Yes, just like in 2017 - we agreed. I won't explain further. Again, I have nothing against these people, maybe they are also innocent. But because of such cases, real political prisoners were not included in the exchange.
This time. And two are those mysterious 20 people who suddenly refused to exchange right on the contact line (is that even possible?) and the propaganda media immediately used this as a media bomb to say that even “terrorists” do not want the LDPR . Maybe they don’t want to, even for sure, but what kind of people are they?
We managed to make inquiries about some people. I won’t name names. I’ll just say that these are people who either also have nothing to do with political articles, or in some way have, but who, for a number of reasons, are not allowed to appear in Donetsk and Lugansk. Therefore, we immediately had a conversation with them - we release you for an exchange, but during the exchange itself you refuse it.
These people returned to Ukraine and live for themselves. Let them live, of course, no question. It’s just interesting how it turns out that real political prisoners, who before the exchange were summarily sentenced to time served (i.e., are already absolutely free people by law) were forcibly put on buses and exchanged without any alternative, while other people with with the same sentences, could they simply refuse the exchange at the last moment and return home? That's great.
And in connection with this, a logical question. Lists of detained persons whom the LDPR returned to Ukraine were published 3 days after the exchange. Where are the complete lists of those who were exchanged by Ukraine?” Volkov asks.
In the comments under his message, Volkov added that some of the exchange participants even managed to be participants in the so-called ATO in Donbass.
At the same time, users noted that formally, all political prisoners on the Ukrainian lists were subject to standard criminal charges.
“So the trick is that all our political prisoners were imprisoned under criminal charges... That’s why we don’t seem to have political prisoners, but we have criminals,” Tamara Dolzhenkova emphasized.
Let us remind you that on December 29 last year, during the exchange of held persons according to the formula “all identified for all identified” Kyiv transferred 60 prisoners to Donetsk, 52 people were transferred from the DPR to Ukraine. LPR transferred Ukraine 25 and took 63 detainees.
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