Planned prisoner exchange Russia-Ukraine: blame and ambiguity

Planned prisoner exchange Russia-Ukraine: blame and ambiguity

A planned exchange 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 rejected as "dirty games" of the Kremlin.

accusations and facts

Russia stated that Ukraine unexpectedly postponed a transfer of prisoners of war and the corpses of fallen soldiers, which waited more than 1,200 frozen Ukrainian corpses in refrigerated cars at an exchange point without buyers.

Ukraine rejected the representation of Russia and explained that both sides had agreed on Saturday to exchange seriously wounded and young troops. However, a specific date for the return of the soldier's corpses has not yet been determined.

progress in peace discussions

As part of a second round of direct peace talks In Istanbul Ukraine on exchanging more prisoners this weekend. Vladimir Medinski, the head of the Russian delegation for the peace talks with Ukraine, recently said that the exchange will be the largest since the beginning of the Three Years' War.

Details of the exchange surgery

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

Medinski continued that Russia made the first list of 640 prisoners of war available, which were listed as "wounded, seriously ill and young people" to start exchange.

statements by the Ministries of Defense

In a video published by the Russian Ministry of Defense on Telegram, two men can be seen in protective suits that open the doors 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 explained that the contact group of the Russian Ministry of Defense was waiting on the border with Ukraine, but claimed that Kiev "unexpectedly shifted the transfer of corpses and the exchange of prisoners of war" and listed "rather strange reasons".

Ukrainian reaction and explanations

Ukraine immediately rejected the allegations and explained that Medinski's statements "do not correspond to reality". In her message, she made it clear that the exchange of prisoners of war and the handover of the corpse were two separate processes.

"Unfortunately, instead of a constructive dialogue, we see ourselves again manipulations and attempts to take advantage of sensitive humanitarian topics for information purposes", wrote the Ukraine coordination center for the treatment of prisoners of war on Telegram. "We ask the Russian side to stop playing with dirty games," added.

trust problems and conflict effects

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said that Russia creates "artificial obstacles" and "makes false statements" to hinder the exchange of living prisoners and emerge from the agreements in Istanbul.

"The Ukrainian side is again suspended to subsequently go away from the agreements," said the Ministry. Although prisoner exchange processes have so far rarely been an arbitration point between the war -leading countries, the failure of the exchange planned on Saturday illustrates the existing distrust that has shaped the peace talks so far.

This conflict appeared shortly after another air raid in Russia on Ukraine, in which three people were killed in the city of Charkiw.