Worthy Christian News > World News > Pope Offers Role In Exchange Ukrainian And Russian POWs Amid Concerns About Their Treatment (Worthy News Radio)

Pope Offers Role In Exchange Ukrainian And Russian POWs Amid Concerns About Their Treatment (Worthy News Radio)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Pope Francis offered Sunday to facilitate a “general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine” as there are mounting concerns about the treatment endured by thousands of detained soldiers. He spoke as more prisoners of war were expected on Sunday because Russia’s military moved further northeast.

Officials said nearly 3,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been released from Russia in prisoner exchanges since Moscow launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.

However, more than 10,000 remain in Russian custody, some of whom have endured two years of conditions that a United Nations expert described as horrific.

There have also been reports about some abuses by Ukrainian forces against Russian troops, including beatings.

Yet, Ukrainian authorities have been more open towards international groups and media to visit centers where they are held, perhaps limiting the number of abuses.

However, critics say the Ukrainian government’s rehabilitation program, which usually involves two months in a sanitarium and a month at home, is inadequate. Experts point out that the traumas suffered by Ukrainian prisoners are growing with the length and severity of the abuse they are being subjected to as the war drags on.

The United Nations has well documented Russia’s torture of prisoners of war. Former inmates have spoken about relentless beatings, electric shocks, rape, sexual violence, and mock executions, seen by U.N. investigators as so a systematic, state-endorsed policy.

LINGERING SYMPTOMS

Many detainees have also reported lingering symptoms like blackouts and fainting spells stemming from repeated blows to the head that were severe enough to cause concussions. As details emerge about mistreatment, Pope Francis noted that his appeal for a general exchange of prisoners “falls on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Risen Lord who wants us to be free and who sets us free.”

In his sermon to thousands in Vatican City, he said that all parties involved should know “that the Holy See remains ready to facilitate every effort in this regard, especially for those who are seriously wounded and sick.”

And more prisoners of war are expected as Russia moves on toward Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast of the country. Shocked residents, including a woman, were lying on the ground as an apparent drone fired by Russia hit Kharkiv, footage seen by Worthy News showed.

Several drones and missiles have hit apartment blocks and industrial areas, though Moscow claims it is targeting strategic military sites. Outside Kharkiv, Russian forces continued their advance across northeastern Ukraine on Sunday, seizing several small settlements along the border. They reportedly forced Ukrainian troops to retreat from some positions if they weren’t captured or killed.

Aid workers confirmed that Russian troops had advanced deeper inside Ukrainian territory and were now threatening several small towns on the outskirts of Kharkiv.

However, Russian officials say at least five people were killed and nine wounded since Saturday in three separate Ukrainian counter-attacks involving drones and artillery strikes on the Russian border provinces of Belgorod and Kursk and the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which Russia claims to have annexed.

It has underscored growing concerns about the escalation of the war since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands of people being killed and injured.