In Russia, prisoners of war are being prepared for exchange by being fattened up – Coordination Headquarters
The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War stated that Russia may be operating separate cells where prisoners are deliberately kept in better physical condition prior to an exchange. According to representatives of the headquarters, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) receives such reports from Ukrainian servicemen who have been successfully released from captivity.
According to the Coordination Headquarters, prisoners are deliberately fed well before an exchange to create the impression of proper treatment of prisoners of war and to demonstrate this to international organizations and the public.
“Everyone involved in the exchange negotiations knows that the enemy, knowing who they will be handing over—and this includes civilians—brings (these prisoners—ed.) back to normal condition through a process of so-called ‘fattening up,’” Pasternak noted.
According to him, this information comes from released Ukrainian defenders and from civilians who have been returned from captivity. “This is also a form of torture—a form of abuse—where some are deliberately starved while others are fattened up so that they appear more or less normal,” the SBU representative noted.
He added that at all meetings, the negotiation team emphasizes to the enemy that the Ukrainian prisoners of war we are taking back and the Russian prisoners of war that Ukraine is handing over are significantly different. “All of ours are very, very thin. Only a handful are more or less in normal physical condition. Their prisoners of war, whom we hand over in exchange, are all actually well-fed.”
According to Pasternak, there is a specific meal schedule, and international institutions—such as the ICRC and the UN—constantly inspect detention facilities to ensure that Ukraine complies with international humanitarian law.
Andriy Pasternak, head of the Joint Center for the Coordination of the Search and Release of Prisoners of War and Persons Illegally Deprived of Liberty as a Result of the Aggression Against Ukraine under the Security Service of Ukraine, made this statement at a press conference at Ukrinform.
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