Dmitry Muratov. Photo: Novaya Gazeta

Novaya Gazeta founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov urged Moscow and Kyiv to carry out a civilian prisoner exchange in a video address on Sunday, as Russia and Ukraine concluded the largest prisoner swap of the war so far.

Addressing Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Muratov recalled the fate of Ukrainian civilian prisoners in Russian captivity, including journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who died in Russian custody in September and was returned to Ukraine without her eyeballs or brain.

Thousands of Ukrainian prisoners, including hundreds being held incommunicado, continue to “go through hell” as the Russian authorities do “whatever they want” with them, Muratov continued.

Muratov also brought up Russian political prisoners who have been sentenced to long prison terms for their anti-war stance, including chronically ill saxophonist Andrey Shabanov, 69-year-old paediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova and former municipal deputy Alexey Gorinov, who has recently been diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Thanking everyone involved in the Ukrainian-Russian negotiations in Istanbul earlier in May, Muratov praised the “1,000 for 1,000” prisoner exchange that concluded on Sunday. “A thousand people from each side will return home in the coming days … To be honest, this is much more important to me than all the talk about internationally recognised state borders at the moment,” he said.

However, Muratov stressed that the exchange had mainly involved prisoners of war, urging Moscow and Kyiv to negotiate a handover of civilian prisoners — which he suggested could also include an exchange of so-called “supporters of the Russian world”, or Ukrainians found guilty of collaborating with Russia, in return for jailed Russians opposing the war.

“Yes, there has been no practice of exchanging civilian prisoners. But it’s time to start. Let them go — while they’re still alive,” Muratov said.