Ombudsman warns families of missing persons, prisoners against joining protests without legal organizers

The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets has warning relatives of Ukrainian defenders who have gone missing or are in captivity about another hostile IPSO (information and psychological security operation) on the topic of exchanges.

"The goal is to discredit the efforts of Ukrainian authorities and destabilize the internal situation (…) In conditions of war, this can have extremely negative consequences, in particular, it helps the enemy in his main goal - to destroy our unity," the ombudsman said on Telegram on Friday

According to Lubinets, the Russian Federation is spreading massive allegations on its propaganda resources about the alleged "unwillingness of Ukraine to return its prisoners of war and civilians," which is also picked up by some Ukrainian Telegram channels, thereby reinforcing the false information background.

In addition, the enemy is artificially creating protest moods, using emotional pressure and manipulation. The Ombudsman notes that during mass actions, the enemy may intentionally create conflict situations with representatives of law enforcement agencies, which Russia will later use to distort the information picture.

Citizens are urged to trust only information from Ukrainian state bodies. And also to participate in those actions that have a legitimate organizer and that cannot be used by enemy special services for their own purposes and to refrain from other public events at the time of distribution of this IPSO. In the event of receiving suspicious calls to participate in protests or attempts to contact third parties, it is necessary to immediately notify law enforcement agencies or the Security Service of Ukraine.

"I emphasize that we must all be united in the fight against the enemy. Ukraine is working to free each and every prisoner. And we have common goals - not to harm the exchange processes, although Russia is trying to make its "corrections", but only by being together we will not allow this to happen!" he said.