Press Release, 7.03.2022

Photo by Valery Melnikov / RIA Novosti

Well-known St. Petersburg influencers in culture and science, politicians and human rights activists appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a petition to immediately begin an exchange of prisoners and bodies of the dead with Ukraine on the principle of “all for all”.

The petition was published on the Change.org platform by Anatoly Golov, a member of the Bureau of the Yabloko party.

The first signatures were put by film director Alexander Sokurov, musician Yury Shevchuk, historians Irina Levinskaya and Anatoly Razumov, artist Dmitry Shagin, writer Nina Katerli, historian Lev Lurie, museum worker Nina Popova, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Education Oleg Lebedev, clergyman Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko, journalist Vitaly Dymarsky, human rights activists Natalia Yevdokimova and Oksana Paramonova, lawyer Igor Kucherenko, deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Boris Vishnevsky and Alexander Shishlov, doctor of political sciences Alexander Sungurov, human rights activist Yevgenia Litvinova, members of the Yabloko party politician Anatoly Golov and human rights activist Yuri Nesterov.

Full text of the petition:

According to the official data from the Russian Ministry of Defence, 498 Russian servicemen and 2,870 Ukrainian servicemen were killed during a “special military operation” in Ukraine from February 24 to March 2 alone.

We call for the speedy exchange of bodies of dead servicemen and the exchange of existing prisoners of war with the Ukrainian side on the principle of “all for all”. We call for a ceasefire for the duration of the exchanges.

Such procedures are provided for by international treaties and, based on humane considerations, they must be carried out as soon as possible so that the captured Russian servicemen return to their families, and their relatives and friends can say farewell to the dead.