Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, has said the exchange with Ukraine will take place between June 7 and 9
Russia and Ukraine will conduct their next mass prisoner exchange at the end of the week, Moscow’s lead negotiator in peace talks with Kiev, Vladimir Medinsky, announced on Wednesday.
The statement follows the second round of direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine held on Monday in Istanbul. At the meeting, the two delegations agreed to swap at least 1,000 prisoners from each side, prioritizing those who are wounded, ill, or under the age of 25.
Reporting on the results of the negotiations to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, Medinsky stated that while the final number of prisoners for exchange has not yet been finalized, it is expected to be about 1,200 from each side.
”This would again become the largest prisoner exchange,” Medinsky noted, stating that Russia is ready to begin the swap on June 7, 8, and 9. “We are completely prepared for this,” he added.
Medinsky also reported that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators had agreed to establish a special line of communication on the expedited transfer of heavily wounded soldiers, who would be exchanged outside of general prisoner swaps.
He stated that Moscow has also offered to unilaterally hand over the bodies of more than 6,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers. This would be done using special refrigerated trucks and trains, and Russia is ready to begin this transfer in the coming days, Medinsky said.
“We understand that they might also have the bodies of our soldiers, probably much, much fewer of them, but we expressed our readiness to accept them if there are any,” the negotiator added.
Additionally, Moscow offered to work on establishing temporary humanitarian pauses on specific areas of the battlefield, lasting two-to-three days, so that both sides could gather the remains of their soldiers. Medinsky said Kiev’s negotiators initially supported the idea and proceeded to work on it, only for Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to publicly reject the idea two hours later.
The final humanitarian issue discussed by Moscow and Kiev was the topic of children supposedly moved from Ukrainian territories by Russia. Medinsky said Ukrainian negotiators handed over a list of 339 children and that Russian authorities are already working to check every single name.
He noted that previously, for “propaganda purposes,” the Ukrainian side had spoken of tens and hundreds of thousands of supposedly stolen children but was ultimately only able to come up with a list of 339.
Medinsky added that it is nevertheless important to examine Kiev’s list and understand how many of these children are still even in Russia, given that many have since moved to Europe. He recalled that many of them were saved by Russian soldiers and taken out from under fire.
Monday’s talks in Istanbul marked the second time Russia and Ukraine have held direct negotiations since Kiev unilaterally abandoned peace talks in 2022. During the latest meeting, both sides exchanged draft memorandums outlining a roadmap toward an eventual peace deal. After the talks, negotiators indicated that direct contact would continue.
