Russia Refuses to Exchange 272 Traitors Convicted in Ukraine

In the three months of the joint state project ‘Hochu k Svoim’ (I Want to Join My Kind), 272 convicted collaborators and traitors have expressed a desire to go to Russia if Ukrainian POWs return from Russian captivity.

The project’s press service reported on this.

The joint state project ‘Hochu k Svoim’ (I Want to Join My Kind) has created special timers that show how long a traitor is waiting for an exchange.

Konstiantyn Malakhov, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for high treason, is the least likely to wait. The timer on his profile shows 30 days.

The record holders are seven convicts at once—Hlib Manakov, Yaroslav Ushkalov, Volodymyr Taburno, Oleksandr Selezniov, Kostiantyn Salmenkov, Volodymyr Muzyka, Serhii Riabukha and Anatoliy Ilyin—who have been waiting for 7 months and 3 days.

The Russian authorities have been informed of the traitors’ desire to leave for Russia, but Moscow refuses to return its former agents.

“Now that they are in prison, Russia is interested in them only as material for propaganda, which calls them ‘ordinary citizens’ whose exchange is somehow ‘not being promoted,'” the project said in a statement.

The joint state project ‘Hochu k Svoim’ (I Want to Join My Kind)

The state project ‘Hochu k Svoim’ (I Want to Join My Kind) is a public list of people convicted of treason and collaboration who wish to go to Russia if Ukrainian POWs are returned from Russian captivity. The project was launched in July 2024.

The project is being implemented by the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War with the support of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

The project aims to achieve the following goals:

• publishing information about persons brought to criminal responsibility who collaborated or assisted the Russian authorities in the war against Ukraine. This process is carried out in accordance with the basic principles of information relations within the framework of the state information policy;
• to enable Ukrainian citizens who are still cooperating with the enemy to stop such activities under certain conditions by using a special form on the project website;
• to enable Ukrainian citizens who have information about the activities of enemy agents to share it with the project, also using a special form on the website;
• to help Ukrainian citizens who do not want to live in Ukraine but wish to live in Russia to satisfy their desire. In this case, the processing of applications submitted through a special form on the project’s website is coordinated by representatives of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.