On December 29, Ukraine and the Russian-backed “authorities” in the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” carried out a prisoner exchange whereby 76 Ukrainian captives – 12 military personnel and 64 civilians – were swapped for 127 people who were released to Russia’s proxies. It certainly was not the “all for all” prisoner exchange foreseen by the Normandy format talks of December 9, 2019, nor was it an even swap. Moreover, no Crimean Tatars were among those released, nor were the political prisoners held in Russia. Nonetheless, there was real joy in Ukraine upon the return of those held by Russian-backed forces, some of them since 2015.
But there was one aspect of the exchange that is deeply troubling, and controversial. Among the prisoners released by Ukraine were ex-officers of the Berkut implicated in the killings of protesters during the Revolution of Dignity in February 2014 and pro-Russian militants convicted of a terrorist attack in Kharkiv in February 2015. The Kyiv Court of Appeal on December 28 freed from custody five former Berkut officers charged with killing 48 Maidan activists; that same day a Kharkiv court sentenced the three militants responsible for four deaths to life imprisonment, but then promptly released them from custody. It was justice denied.
Critics said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – who called the swap “a great victory” – had gone too far in his concessions and that including these men in the exchange undermines ongoing criminal cases. Oleh Sentsov, who had been a political prisoner before he was set free in a swap in September 2019, said Kyiv was giving up “real murderers” and that “everything Ukrainians fought for” was being undermined.
Mr. Zelenskyy responded by explaining that the transfer of the former Berkut officers was a condition of the prisoner exchange and saying “it was a difficult decision” and a “political” one. “If they had stayed, we would not have received our intelligence officers, would not have received the guys who were defending Ukraine, who were in Debaltseve,” he added. “We cannot bring the dead back. But we could bring those alive back,” he underlined, adding “that’s the main thing.” At the same time, he pledged: “It will not affect the cases of Maidan in any way. As I promised, we will finish the investigation of Maidan cases. Definitely.”
The problem is, as pointed out in a joint statement from a coalition of groups, organizations and NGOs headed by the Anti-Corruption Action Center, the actions of Ukraine’s authorities “are ruining the remaining trust in the justice system, and first of all in the recent attempts to reform the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary.” In fact, “Ukraine risks making its justice system a hostage of the demands of the aggressor state,” the statement emphasizes. “We urge the authorities to find a legal solution to this situation, which will ensure the trust of the society and the citizens, as well as establish real independence of the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary.”
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the exchange as a “a long-hoped-for humanitarian gesture that should contribute to the restoration of trust between the two sides,” the European Union noted the inclusion of the Berkut men and said, “We expect all accusations will continue to be investigated and the parties concerned to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.”
If they are not brought to justice, Russia will once again get what it wants and succeed in hiding its link to the Maidan killings that took place during the regime of its puppet Viktor Yanukovych.