Ukrainian human rights commissioner: Unofficial Russian list of POWs allegedly on board downed military plane includes those ‘previously exchanged’

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets told Reuters that a list of Ukrainian POWs allegedly on board the downed Il-76 plane, which was posted on Russian media, includes those who were already exchanged, reports The Guardian.

“We found Ukrainian citizens in the list who have already been previously exchanged,” said Lubinets.

The list of the 65 Ukrainian POWs allegedly on board the plane was published by RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan. The list’s authenticity has not been confirmed. The Russian authorities have not published a list of the Ukrainian POWs.

Earlier, Lubinets said that the exchange coordination headquarters saw no indication that there were such a large number of people on the plane.

“I can’t say for certain that there [in the downed Il-76 plane] were definitely POWs. Based on the photo and video analysis that we’ve seen, if there were bodies — again, I’m not an expert — but if the Russians had some kind of photos or videos that could show that our POWs were there, then they would’ve used them already,” he said in a broadcast on national TV.