Last month on the 25th, rescue workers searched a house destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Kyiv, Ukraine. ©AP/Newsis
[Dailyan = Reporter Jung In-kyun] Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange prisoners of war, but have announced different schedules, causing confusion.
According to Russia’s state-run Tass news agency, on the 8th (local time), Russia sent 1,212 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers back to Ukraine, stating that this action was according to an agreement reached on the 2nd in Istanbul, Turkey. Aleksandr Zorin, the first deputy director of the Russian General Staff’s Intelligence Department who participated in the negotiations, said, “We plan to return more than 6,000 bodies.”
Previously, both sides promised to exchange 6,000 collected war dead bodies each and to exchange young and ill prisoners (aged 18-25) through a second high-level negotiation on the 2nd. After the negotiations, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations explained that they would exchange a total of 1,000-1,200 prisoners.
However, on the same day, the Ukrainian side announced a different schedule. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Intelligence Directorate, said the exchange of war casualties and prisoners agreed in Istanbul would begin next week. The Russian side has presented Ukraine with a list of 640 prisoners but claims that Ukraine is violating the agreement by not stating its position on it.