Ukraine is working to have a patron country for the release of civilian prisoners illegally held by Russia. This was stated by Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, during a briefing, according to a UNN correspondent.
"Do we have a country that is ready to take responsibility and negotiate on civilians? I will say this - I cannot name such a country publicly, not even such countries yet. But we have several such countries, and I personally conducted such negotiations and continue to conduct them. This is the level of our President. He is also doing this," Lubinets said.
He noted that Ukraine wants a country or countries to receive official patronage status, after which diplomats of such a country will be able to have physical access to Ukrainian civilians illegally detained by Russia.
"They will be able to participate in ensuring their rights, transfer medicines, raise the issue of their release, raise the issue of early release, participate in the legal protection of citizens, for example, hire lawyers. These are the technical things we are dealing with," Lubinets said.
Speaking about the difference between a patron country and an intermediary country, Lubinets noted that Ukraine has quite a few intermediary countries in various areas, including the return of civilians.
"But we insist that we need a patron country with an official status, because then such a country has much more power. There can be a lot of intermediaries. There can be only one patron country or there can be up to five according to international humanitarian law. We have intermediary countries, but we don't have a patron country yet, and we are working on it," Lubinets explained.
He expressed hope that a patron country would appear this year.
In addition, Lubinets said that Western countries will probably never be able to become patron states legally, because one of the elements of obtaining this status is legal confirmation from Russia.