Dmytro Lubynets reminded that the Geneva Convention prohibits the exchange of civilians.

Dmytro Lubynets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, assessed the possibility of exchanging representatives of the UOC-MP for captured Ukrainians.

“I would not like to focus on church representatives. I can say that any citizen of the Russian Federation who is interested in the Russian authorities, we are ready to consider any options for their return to the territory of Russia for the sake of the return of our heroes,” he said in an interview Radio Svoboda.

The ombudsman also reminded that the Geneva Convention prohibits the exchange of civilians.

“We can only exchange prisoners of war. We can only release civilians within the framework of, perhaps, some mutual obligations. Or, for example, after conviction, send them to the territory of the Russian Federation to serve their sentence. It is very important for us, first of all, to find legal reasons. And we have them. And different options. And second: yes, we are ready to do it,” Lubynets explained.

UOC MP in Ukraine: what is known

Since November, the SBU has been conducting counter-intelligence measures in religious buildings on the grounds of monasteries and dioceses of the UOC MP. In the first days alone, more than 350 church buildings and 850 people were checked. Searches are still being conducted at the facilities of the UOC MP in various areas.

During counterintelligence operations, the SBU discovered propaganda literature denying the existence of Ukraine, medals for the “liberation of Crimea”, Russian passports and symbols of Russian terrorist groups in Donbas.

In addition, during the searches, security forces caught the secretary of the Chernivtsi Diocese of the MP Mykyta with a naked underage boy.

On December 9, the rector of the Pochaiv Theological Seminary of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate was informed of the suspicion that he was engaged in anti-Ukrainian activities.