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Many of the Ukrainians handed over to kyiv by Moscow in the large prisoner-of-war exchange were “brutally tortured” during their captivity, a senior Ukrainian government official said on Thursday.
“Many of them were brutally tortured,” Kyrylo Budanov, head of the intelligence department at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, told a news conference, without elaborating on the nature of the alleged torture.
Budanov added that also “there are people whose physical condition is more or less normal”despite “chronic malnutrition due to poor prison conditions.”
the prisoners were detained in various prison facilities in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian troops, as well as in Russiaadded Budanov, who was involved in organizing the exchange of detainees.
According to Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky, “all” Ukrainians involved in the exchange need “psychological rehabilitation”.
On Wednesday, Ukraine and Russia carried out the largest exchange of military prisoners since the Russian invasion began in late February.
kyiv has recovered 10 foreigners (five Britons, two Americans, a Moroccan, a Swede and a Croat) and 205 Ukrainians, including the defense chiefs of the Azovstal steelworks in the city of Mariupol, a symbol of resistance to the Russian invasion.
In exchange, Moscow received 55 Russians and former Ukrainian deputy Viktor Medvedchuk, considered close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and accused of high treason by kyiv.
Source: Observadora
