Russia proceeded on Tuesday in the second phase of its large exchange of prisoners With Ukraine, which concerns people seriously injured or aged under the age of 25, Russian news agencies reported.
“A second group of Russian soldiers has been repatriated from the territory controlled by the kyiv regime. In exchange, a group of prisoners of war from the Ukrainian armed forces was delivered, “said the Russian Defense Ministry, quoted by Tass and Ria Novosti.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday’s exchange concerned “seriously injured soldiers” during the fighting.
The two capitals did not specify at this stage the number of soldiers involved in this exchange.
Almost daily negotiations
On Monday, an exchange had already taken place as agreed last week during a second cycle of Russian-Ukrainian peace talks in Istanbul. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “the (was) quite complex process” and that “negotiations continue practically every day”.
In May, the two belligerents had already exchanged some 1000 people from Each camp, soldiers and civilians, after the first cycle of direct negotiations in Istanbul, in May. The two countries are far from a ceasefire or a lasting conflict settlement.
Moscow agreed to give 6,000 remains to kyiv
Uncertainty remains concerning the exchange between Moscow and kyiv of thousands of bodies of killed soldiers, also decided in early June in Istanbul. Russia, which agreed to hand over 6,000 remains to the’Ukraine, said he was waiting for a kyiv confirmation.
Asked about this, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said on Tuesday that refrigeration trucks with part of the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers to be returned “for several days at the border” that a “final agreement” be found.
