According to the announcement of the head of the Russian negotiation delegation, Mr. Vladimir Medinsky, Russia and Ukraine will conduct the next large-scale Prisoner exchange this weekend. He said the exchanges are scheduled to take place over three days, 7, 8 and 9, and the two sides are finalizing the final details.
The announcement came after the second round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul earlier in the week. At this meeting, the two sides agreed to exchange at least 1,000 prisoners on each side, giving priority to those who are injured, sick or under 25 years old.
Reporting to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Medinsky said the number of exchanges could reach about 1,200 prisoners on each side, and if completed, it would be the largest exchanges ever between the two countries in the context of the conflict.
In addition to the plan to exchange key prisoners, the negotiating delegations also agreed to establish a separate communication channel to organize the rapid transfer of seriously injured soldiers, without having to wait for large-scale exchanges.
Mr. Medinsky also said that Russia is ready to unilaterally hand over the bodies of more than 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers who died. Transportation will be done by trucks and specialized trains with a refrigeration system.
Russia is ready and could begin a transition in the next few days. He also stated that if Ukraine had kept the bodies of Russian soldiers, even if the number could be much smaller, Russia would still be ready to receive them.
Another proposal from Russia is to set up temporary humanitarian stands lasting two to three days in some areas of the front line, in order to facilitate the recovery of soldier bodies by both sides.
Although Ukrainian negotiators initially agreed and began working on the proposal, Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky later publicly rejected it just two hours later.
Regarding the humanitarian issue related to children, Mr. Medinsky said that Ukraine had issued a list of 339 children that it believed had been taken to Russia. Russia is testing each case.
He stressed that although Ukraine had previously claimed to have tens of thousands of children "yd other than those" - the final list is only 339. Many of these have now moved to Europe, and some have been rescued by Russian soldiers from the war zone.
