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Prisoners of War

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Screengrab from video: AptiAlaudinovAKHMAT/Telegram.
Chechnya

Chechen commander orders captured Chechens in Ukraine to ‘kill themselves’

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A Chechen special forces commander has dismissed calls for a prisoner swap with Ukraine, and ordered captured Chechen soldiers to kill themselves so that they could end their ‘journey as men’. On 15 September, the commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces unit and a Russian Major General, Apti Alaudinov, posted a video on his Telegram channel stating that Ukraine could ‘keep’ Chechen soldiers it had captured. In the video, Alaudinov discussed how he had recently received several vide

Ramzan Kadyrov on a rally in Grozny. Screengrab from video: Ramzan Kadyrov/Telegram
Chechnya

Kadyrov offers Ukrainian POWs in exchange for lifting US sanctions on family

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Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has announced that he is willing to offer 20 Ukrainian prisoners of war if US sanctions against his mother, adult daughters, minor children, and wife are lifted.  The offer was made on 6 January, during a visit to Chechnya by disgraced former US Marines intelligence officer Scott Ritter, to whom the head of Chechnya handed over a list of captured Ukrainian military personnel. Ritter, who is a convicted sex offender, frequently speaks in support of Russia, and

Photo: OC Media.
Armenia–Azerbaijan Conflict

Meta Oversight Board upholds decision to leave Armenian POW video on Facebook

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Footage alleged to show injured Armenian soldiers being captured by their Azerbaijani counterparts will remain on Facebook, after Meta’s Oversight Board decided to uphold an earlier decision by the company. The video, which was published on Facebook in October 2022, was not removed from the platform at the time despite violating Facebook’s Coordinating Harm and Promoting Crime Community Standard. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, cited the video’s newsworthiness and argued that public interest

POWs land in Yerevan. Still via Sputnik.
Armenia

Armenia moves to arrest several ex-POWs 

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Five of 10 prisoners of war formerly held by Azerbaijan have been charged with ‘violating the rules of duty’. Armenia’s Investigative Committee has submitted a motion to have them arrested.  A court has already granted permission for the arrest of one soldier, while a motion to have another soldier arrested has been rejected. Neither the  Investigative Committee nor the soldiers’ legal team has made public any specifics of the case.  The former POWs were reportedly taken captive during cla

The rally outside the Armenia government building. Still via news.am,
Armenia

Parents rally after Armenian parliamentary speaker says POWs ‘no longer exist’ for him

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Parents of Armenian prisoners of war have rallied outside of the government building in Yerevan after the publication of an edited video of Parliamentary speaker Alen Simonyan saying that Armenian POWs held by Azerbaijan ‘no longer exist’ for him. He also alleged that the soldiers were captured after abandoning their posts. The parents and relatives of the prisoners and missing soldiers held a rally on the evening of 7 December — the same day the initial video was published — demanding that Si

Armenian captives arrive in Yerevan on 8 September. Image via the Russian peacekeeping mission to Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia

Armenia and Azerbaijan exchange prisoners

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Two Armenian soldiers captured near the southern border between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been exchanged for an Azerbaijani soldier who was detained after entering a house in Nagorno-Karabakh. The exchange in the early hours of Wednesday was facilitated by the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh.  Azerbaijani serviceman Jamil Babaeyev was detained in Martakert (Aghdara) on 26 August after entering a private home. Artur Nalbandian and Aramais Torozyan were detained on 14 J

Armenian POWs returning home. Photo via Nikol Pashinyan's Facebook page.
Armenia

15 Armenian captives freed in deal negotiated with help of US, Georgia, and OSCE

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On Saturday fifteen Armenian prisoners of war were repatriated in apparent exchange for Armenia providing Azerbaijan a map of nearly 100,000 landmines. The exchange was facilitated with the mediation of Georgia, the United States, and the OSCE. The Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry stated the maps showed the details of the location of landmines in a part of Azerbaijan’s Aghdam region formerly controlled by Armenian forces.  On 12 June, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that over the past s

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