Russian governor wants to make Ukrainian prisoners of war “pay with their blood”. Russia is forming battalions of Ukrainian prisoner of war and deploying them to the front.
The prisoners are used to build or restore military facilities - "so that they can rebuild the new regions of Mother Russia, in revenge for what they themselves destroyed (...) They atone for their blood," says Yevgeny Balizki, governor of annexed Zaporizhzhia region. Russia has no interest in a prisoner swap.