Ukraine hopes to resume prisoner exchanges by year-end, Zelenskyy says
Photo: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official)
Ukraine hopes to resume prisoner exchanges by the end of the year and bring home a significant number of its citizens, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
"We are making every effort to restore prisoner exchanges to bring home Ukrainian servicemen and civilians held by Russia. This includes Crimean Tatar, political, and religious prisoners in Russia. Of course, we are working to return our kidnapped Ukrainian children as well," he emphasized.
Zelenskyy noted that Türkiye has all the necessary capabilities to support this effort.
"We hope to resume exchanges by the end of the year and bring home a significant number of prisoners. Türkiye is helping us greatly in this," the Ukrainian President said.
Earlier, on Saturday, November 15, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov reported that Ukraine and Russia would resume prisoner exchanges. Kyiv currently expects to free around 1,200 Ukrainians from Russian captivity.
According to Umerov, after consultations in Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates on restoring the exchange process, both sides agreed to reactivate the Istanbul agreements.
After US President Donald Trump took office, Ukraine and Russia resumed negotiations in Istanbul in May of this year.
During three rounds of meetings (in May, June, and July), the parties attempted to reach a peace agreement. Ukraine repeatedly expressed its readiness for a ceasefire and to halt combat along the front line, but Russia refused to agree to a truce.
Given Russia's unchanged demands, Moscow currently has no intention of ending the war.
At the same time, there was some positive progress on the humanitarian front. Ukraine and Russia have conducted multiple prisoner exchanges, as well as exchanges of the bodies of fallen soldiers.
