«Systematization of data on prisoners is one of the key tasks for the Ukrainian authorities» – Iryna Vereshchuk

On March 16, the Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, started its work. In an interview with TSN special correspondent Stanislav Yasynsky, she told what is the purpose of such a body.
«The headquarter for the treatment of prisoners works every hour and every minute. It includes representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Defense – and other structures – all those who deal with prisoners of war. Everyone has their own registers. All the information is very extensive – that’s why it was decided to organize everything into one body» – Vereshchuk said.

She said that the systematization of available information on prisoners is now one of the key tasks for the Ukrainian authorities.

«We are faced with the problem that there is information, but it is very fragmented. Everyone collects their direction, there is no generalized information. That is, a person cannot call a single number to provide or receive information. Thus, we are now forming registers of all – prisoners of war, detained civilians» – Iryna Vereshchuk explained.

Therefore, the Headquarter decided to create a National Information Bureau, which will be the only structure that will form registers of all prisoners of war and detained civilians – both Ukrainian and opposition – and will be the entry point for all data on this topic.