20 Chechens have been returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.

Of the 157 captured military personnel returned to Russia by Ukraine, 20 are natives of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov reported. Among them is a person convicted of sexual abuse of children and a former official, journalists have discovered.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on February 5, State Duma deputy from Chechnya Shamsail Saraliev reported on the first prisoner exchange with Ukraine this year. As part of this exchange, 157 military personnel and three civilians were returned to Russia.

Twenty of the 157 Russian military personnel returned from Ukrainian captivity during the exchange on February 5 are natives of Chechnya, said the head of the republic, Ramzan Kadyrov.

“Kadyrov’s team has been working on the issue of their return for a long time. Recently, answering journalists’ questions in Moscow, I announced that the next stage of the release of Russian fighters would soon take place. At that time, the topic of prisoner exchange was also discussed with (...) the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. We are grateful to him for his participation in resolving important issues,” he wrote on his Telegram channel on the evening of February 5.

When discussing prisoner exchanges, the Russian side first and foremost demands the return of “Kadyrov’s men from ‘Akhmat,’” the Ukrainian project “I Want to Live” noted on its Telegram channel following the exchange on February 5. Meanwhile, the project “I Want to Find,” dedicated to the search for prisoners and missing soldiers, published the names of 16 released Chechens. Among them are Magomed Bizukayev and Roman Bibulatov. According to the Ukrainian side, Chechen representatives demanded their immediate return as early as the summer of 2024, threatening to terminate all further exchanges otherwise.

Roman Bibulatov was convicted in 2010 of sexually assaulting three children—a 12-year-old girl, an eight-year-old girl, and an eight-year-old boy. The Tver Region Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICR) reported the charges against Bibulatov in August 2009. In 2022, after serving his sentence, Bibulatov was convicted of driving while intoxicated; After being released in 2023, he, by his own admission, was "caught again" for drunk driving, after which he went to the war zone, reported the investigative journalism project .

Also on the list of returned Chechen natives is Magomed Zarakhmatov, the former head of the village of Valerik in the Achkhoy-Martan district of the republic. According to the Chechen opposition movement, Zarakhmatov was once close to Kadyrov and was involved in the expropriation of land plots from village residents.