The "governor" of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia oblast, Yevhen Balitsky, wants Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) to be granted russian citizenship and fight against Ukraine. He shared this with journalists during the "world" youth festival in Sochi.
According to Balitsky, there are 25,000 Ukrainian POWs in russia. "These 25,000 raise the question for us of what to do with them", - he noted. Balitsky himself, a collaborator, suggested encouraging Ukrainian military personnel to betray their country. "The decision by the Armed Forces, in conjunction with the country's leadership, was made that for those who want to obtain Russian citizenship, a battalion named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi was formed in Donbas, which has already undergone combat training and is now fighting [against the Armed Forces of Ukraine]... People are obtaining Russian citizenship and, as they say, 'redeeming it with blood'", - he explained.
According to the collaborator, russian authorities are exploring mechanisms for the "assimilation" of Ukrainian citizens captured in war and have no intention of exchanging them.