Russia claims Ukraine is 'not ready' for daily prisoner exchanges — Ukraine responds
Prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia on June 12 (t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official)
Russia has claimed that Ukraine is allegedly "not ready" for daily prisoner exchanges. However, this information is false and part of ongoing information manipulation by Russia, according to the Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
"Ukraine urges the Russian side not to delay the prisoner exchanges agreed upon in Istanbul," the statement reads.
The Coordination Headquarters noted that Ukraine strictly adheres to the exchange agreements reached in Istanbul and hopes for the same readiness from the Russian side.
At the same time, following today's successful round of exchanging severely wounded and seriously ill prisoners, the Russian side claimed that Ukraine was allegedly not ready for daily exchanges.
"We view such statements as continued information manipulation and yet another round of disinformation from Russia, which has accompanied every stage of exchanges under the Istanbul agreements," the Coordination Headquarters emphasized.
They added that, in reality, it was Russia that proposed postponing the exchanges to later dates. However, at the insistence of the Ukrainian negotiating team, the exchanges will continue and are already scheduled for the coming days.
Prisoner exchange
On June 12, Ukraine and Russia conducted another round of prisoner exchanges as part of the agreements reached in Istanbul during the second round of negotiations. Both sides returned home groups of wounded and severely wounded soldiers.
Among those brought back to Ukraine are servicemen from the Armed Forces, including the Air Assault Forces, Navy, Air Force, Territorial Defense Forces, State Border Guard Service, and the National Guard.
Also among the freed today are defenders of Mariupol who had been held in captivity for over three years. All the released defenders are men from the enlisted and non-commissioned ranks.
Some of the Ukrainian soldiers freed today had previously been listed as missing in action.
In total, those returning home fought in the Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk directions.
