Russia creates new fake about exchange of prisoners

Amid yesterday's prisoner exchange, russian propaganda spread disinformation about the prisoner exchange between Ukraine and russia. Propagandists claim that only 173 soldiers returned from russian captivity, which is not true.

This was reported in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Russian propagandists claim that as part of a prisoner exchange between russia and Ukraine, Kyiv was able to return only 173 troops in exchange for 248 russians. Allegedly, in addition, the russian federation received 75 military for five Azovstal defense commanders, whom President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took from Turkey in the summer of 2023.

In fact, 230 military and civilians returned to Ukraine from captivity. Of these, 130 servicemen, 55 national guardsmen, 38 border guards, one police officer and six civilians.

The purpose of the russian fake is to cause distrust of the Ukrainian authorities and convince Ukrainians that the authorities allegedly "don't care about the fate of prisoners."

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukraine returned more than 200 military and civilians from russian captivity. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this on Wednesday, January 3.

Prior to this, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that the aggressor state russia does not agree to the repatriation of prisoners of war and blames Ukraine for this. The russian federation also regularly makes "stuffing" on social networks in order to split the Ukrainian society.