Rights defenders are sure of Ageyev's return to his homeland

Russia will do everything possible to protect Victor Ageyev, who was detained in Ukraine, said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian President. Sergey Krivenko, a member of the Human Rights Council (HRC), is sure that Russia will soon try to exchange Ageyev for the captured Ukrainian soldiers. However, Valentina Melnikova, an activist of the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, points to low exchange rate in the conflict zone.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 27, the BBC announced that on June 24, Ukrainian militaries captured four fighters of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, including Victor Ageyev, a Russian citizen. Meanwhile, the Russia's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has stated that Ageyev was not under his contract military service in the Rostov Region.

Dmitry Peskov has called Ageyev a member of the People's Militia of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

In her turn, Ageyev's mother insists that her son is a serviceman; she asked the Altai branch of the "Yabloko" Party to help in finding out his fate. She learned about her son's capturing from reporters.

According to Mr Krivenko, in case of a serviceman's injury or death, the MoD usually "pretends that the incident occurred on the territory of Russia." According to his version, there are very few applications of Russian relatives of those captured in Ukraine.

Valentina Melnikova is sure that it will be impossible to get any statistics from Russian authorities on the prisoners of war in Ukraine.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.