MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/. Mothers of captured Ukrainian servicemen are asking not to return their sons to Ukraine, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova told TASS on Tuesday, noting that she thinks it appropriate to take into account the wishes of the POWs when exchanging them.

"I began to receive appeals from Ukrainian mothers who are asking not to turn their sons over, not to return them to Ukraine," the ombudswoman said.

According to her, they think that their sons will be forced to fight again or will be punished for getting captured. "I think that it is necessary to ask what a captured Ukrainian serviceman himself wants and proceed from his desires [when swapping]," she said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.