Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament), has supported the idea of Russian lawmaker Anatoly Vasserman to prohibit the exchange of prisoners from Ukraine’s Azov battalion for Russian prisoners of war.
“Right now, the Ukraine terrorist group says that the surrender of militants of the Nazi Azov battalion is the first step towards their release and exchange. I think that we should approve a resolution or a bill that prohibits the exchange of Nazi criminals,” Vasserman said in a video published by Duma TV.
He added that those who “were directly involved in the killings of civilians,” as well as those “who covered themselves in fascist tattoos” cannot be exchanged.
“Your proposal is correct. Nazi criminals cannot be exchanged. They are war criminals and we must do everything we can to make them stand trial,” Volodin responded.
In the past 24 hours, 265 Ukrainian servicemen from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol surrendered to the Russian forces, including 51 seriously wounded soldiers, the Russian Defence Ministry reported.
Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar stated that Ukraine plans to hold a prisoner swap with Russia to return the Azovstal soldiers to Ukraine-controlled territory.
