The Russian Federation does not officially publish lists of prisoners of war who were to be exchanged on January 24 through the relevant authorities.
Source. This was stated by a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Andriy Yusov, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
"First, the lists of prisoners of war (who were going to be exchanged – ed.) were known. The other thing is what kind of lists. In Ukraine, the official information is provided by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War and officials, including the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights. What do we have from the aggressor state? Propagandists, Simonyan, Shariy, and so on, are covering, showing allegedly certain lists," he said on the air of the telethon on Thursday.
Yusov emphasized that the information about the lists in Russia was not disseminated by the aggressor country's Defense Ministry or relevant authorities, including the humanitarian headquarters responsible for the treatment of prisoners of war, but by propaganda.
Answering a clarifying question about whether the Ukrainian lists coincide with those disseminated by Russian propaganda, the DIU said:
"The fact is that commenting on the information that Russian propaganda deliberately throws in public means participating in the implementation of their operation. And when such lists are officially announced, of course, there will be official comments."
As reported, on the morning of Wednesday, January 24, an Il-76 plane crashed near the Russian city of Belgorod, which, according to Russian media reports, could have been carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Background. Yusov also noted that the IL-76 was supposed to be carrying Russian military and political VIPs, but the FSB forbade them to board at the last minute. According to the representative of the GUR, Ukrainian intelligence found this out after the plane crash.