You're reading: Prisoner exchange process to see volunteers officially team up with SBU

Volunteers involved in the ongoing exchange of Ukrainian prisoners in separatist-controlled territories are joining forces with the Security Service of Ukraine to enhance effectiveness.

The news comes as hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers remain imprisoned by Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas, their fate hanging in the balance as the exchange process drags on, bogged down by a lack of coordination, bureaucratic hurdles and disagreements between the Ukrainian and Russian sides.

Viktor Maistrenko, a volunteer involved in the process, said the merging of volunteer teams would speed up the process and enhance humanitarian aspects. While volunteers have always worked closely with security officials, they will now be streamlined to form one unified group, Maistrenko said, eliminating many of the hindrances caused previously by poor coordination.

It would also see one of the most controversial figures, Volodymyr Ruban, removed.

Ruban, a negotiator who has secured the release of hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners in separatist-controlled territories, has been accused by volunteers of being too chummy with the separatists and demanding bribes from prisoners’ families. He has denied those accusations.

“From now on, access will be closed for him,” Maistrenko said, adding that the process would now be run jointly by a union of volunteer groups along with the Security Service. “We just figured that since we’re all working for the same thing, it would be easier for all of us to combine forces and make things more efficient.”

The group will focus not only on freeing prisoners but also helping internally displaced persons who have fled areas close to the frontline.

Markiyan Lubkivskiy, a senior adviser in the Security Service of Ukraine, confirmed the news at a briefing in Kyiv, saying “we always work closely with volunteers, we are nobody without them.”

As a painful reminder of the importance of the prisoner exchange, two Ukrainian soldiers recently freed told of how they were used as slaves while in custody.

Igor Kovalchuk and Yevgeny Oleinik, freed after eight months in captivity on April 29, were held for so long because “one of the (separatist) field commanders used them literally as slaves,” Vasily Budik, a lead negotiator, said in an interview with Ukrainian media.

Budik, an aide to the deputy defense minister, has been a driving force behind the prisoner exchanges, having devoted his life to freeing the prisoners after winding up in captivity himself last year.

Kovalchuk and Oleinik are “half the size they were when they wound up in custody,” Budik told the Obozrevtal news portal on April 30. “They are exhausted; they were mercilessly used to perform hard labor, and fed poorly and badly,” he said.

Kyiv Post staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected]. Staff writer Alyona Zhuk contributed to this report.