Announcement was made by the Russian Defense Ministry and confirmed by the Ukrainian government; According to Zelensky, agreement included both military and civilians, detained since 2014
And they exchanged, on Thursday (14), 84 prisoners of war, announced the Ministry of Russian Defense, on the eve of a summit meeting between the Russian President, and his American counterpart ,. According to the portfolio, “84 Russian military returned from the territory controlled by the Kiev regime. In return, 84 Ukrainian Armed Forces War prisoners were delivered.”
The Ukrainian President confirmed the exchange, and said it included both military and civilians. “Among the people released today are civilians detained by the Russians since 2014, 2016 and 2017, as well as soldiers who participated in the defense of the port city of Mariupol”, surrounded by the Russian Army in 2022, he said. Zelensky said the United Arab Emirates played a mediation role in exchange, as well as in previous similar operations.
Prisoner exchanges and dead soldiers are one of the last areas in which Moscow and Kiev continue to cooperate, more than three and a half years after the Russian offensive against Ukraine.
The parties exchanged thousands of prisoners this year, after agreements reached for three rounds of direct negotiations in Istanbul from May to July. The exchanges were the only concrete result of the meetings. At the last meeting in this format, in July, the two delegations found the “distance” of their positions to end the conflict.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Nicolas Robert
