Russia does not want to exchange ’Azovs’ and marines, as it will suffer reputational losses after such exchanges - Coordination Center
Russia does not want to give Ukraine the Azov and marines, and the situation with their return home remains complicated.
According to Censor.NET, this was stated by Bohdan Okhrimenko, head of the Secretariat of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, in an interview with Ukrinform.
He noted that Azov was recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia.
"And when we return Azovs from captivity and this becomes known to the local population, the authorities there suffer reputational losses. And the marines are perceived in Russia as motivated, trained servicemen who are ready to rejoin the Armed Forces upon their return," explained Okhrimenko.
According to him, so far, 30% of the servicemen of the military unit 3057 of the National Guard of Ukraine, whose units were defending Mariupol, have been returned from captivity. The Azov regiment, which was led by Denys Prokopenko at the time, was part of this unit.
Earlier, the commander of the 12th Special Forces Brigade of the Azov National Guard, Denys (Redis) Prokopenko, said that Azov soldiers had been living in inhumane conditions for almost 33 months.
