Telegram channels controlled by the the main office of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation such as Lehitymnyi (Дegitimate), Resident and others began to manipulate the topic of the exchange of Ukrainian prisoners of war in order to reduce another defeat for Russia in particular on the information front.

For the sake of this, they distribute several theses at once. The first is that prisoners of war, in particular, the commanders of the Azov regiment, were exchanged as part of a “grand agreement” that provides for “freezing the conflict” and ceding Ukraine to Russia. For example, stopping the offensive or recognizing Crimea as Russian or recognizing the results of so-called referendums. Probably, a rather narrow circle of people who were negotiators in the process of exchanging the Ukrainian military for Viktor Medvedchuk and the Russian military know the terms of this exchange. But this is definitely not a cessation of hostilities or consent to the loss of territories. After all, it is known that President Zelenskyi offered to export Russian ammonia through the territory of Ukraine in order to exchange the Ukrainian military and return them home. That is, it was about economic, not military-political issues.

The second thesis, spread by telegram channels, has no rational explanation at all: the authors of the messages insist that now that “even the Azov people” have been exchanged, that is, those whom Russian propagandists proposed to publicly condemn and execute, the Ukrainian military will surrender en masse, because that "they will understand that nothing threatens them in captivity." And this, it would seem, is “a side, but negative, consequence of such an exchange for Ukraine”. Why the fighters of the army leading the offensive and knowing how they shoot, torture, burn Ukrainian prisoners alive, should “surrender en masse”, the network of the main office of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation channels does not explain.