Planned Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange: allegations and uncertainty

Planned Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchange: allegations and uncertainty

a planned exchange campaign of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war did not take place on Saturday. Moscow accused Kiev of having postponed the exchange at the last minute, which Ukrainian officials are as "dirty games" of the Kremlin.

Details of the failed exchange campaign

Russia claimed that Ukraine unexpectedly postponed a transfer of prisoners of war and the leaseholder fallen soldiers. More than 1,200 frozen Ukrainian corpses waited in a refrigerated truck at an exchange point without anyone picking them up.

Ukrainian view of the allegations

Ukraine rejected Russia's presentation of the events and explained that both sides had agreed on Saturday to exchange seriously wounded and young soldiers, but was not set out for the return of the corpse.

Another exchange of prisoners of war planned

During a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul On Monday to agree on Russia Ukraine on exchanging more prisoners of war this weekend. Wladimir Medinski, the head of the Russian delegation for peace talks with Ukraine, said that the exchange would be the greatest since the beginning of the Three Years' War.

Humanitarian operation to return corpses

"In strict agreement with the agreements of Istanbul, the Russian side began a humanitarian operation to transfer more than 6,000 corpses of fallen Ukrainian soldiers and soldiers under 25," said Medinski on Saturday afternoon. He claimed that 1,212 corpses of fallen Ukrainian soldiers were at the exchange point, while the others were "on the way".

confusion about the exchange modalities

In a video published by Russia's Ministry of Defense on Telegram, two men can be seen in protective suits that open the door of a truck that is parked on the side of the road. Inside the truck there were dozens of sealed white sacks, the ministry stated that they contained the corpses of Ukrainian soldiers. Medinski said that the contact group of the Russian Ministry of Defense was waiting on the border with Ukraine, but claimed that Kiev had "postponed the transfer of corpses and the transfer of prisoners of war for an indefinite period" and had "rather strange reasons" for this decision.

reactions from Ukraine

Ukraine quickly rejected the allegations and explained that Medinski's statements “do not correspond to reality.” It was said that the exchange campaigns of prisoners of war and the return of soldiers' corpses were separate processes.

“Unfortunately, instead of a constructive dialogue, we see ourselves again manipulations and attempts to use sensitive humanitarian topics for information purposes," wrote the Ukrainian coordination center for the treatment of prisoners of war on Telegram. "We call the Russian side to stop with the dirty games."

difficulties in the exchange process

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said that Russia creates “artificial obstacles” and “false statements” to hinder the exchange of living prisoners and to delve from the agreements made in Istanbul. "The Ukrainian side is once again faced with the attempt to subsequently move away from the agreements," said the Ministry.

lack of trust between the warring parties

Despite rare matches in relation to the exchange of prisoners of war, the failure of the exchange planned on Saturday illustrates the lack of trust that the peace talks have so far burdened. This dispute came to Ukraine shortly after another air raid in Russia, in which three people were killed in the city of Charkiw.