Ukraine and Russia agree in Istanbul on POW swap of ‘1,000 for 1,000’ – Zelenskyy
At the talks in Istanbul, the delegations of Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange prisoners of war in the "1,000 for 1,000" format, with an additional exchange of 200 for 200 possible, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
"There will be an exchange of our military. It will be a thousand for a thousand. There may be an additional 200 for 200. Because Ukraine has raised the issue of additional military personnel, political prisoners, and journalists. We have constantly addressed and raised these issues," Zelenskyy said during a zoom call with journalists on Monday.
He also said that this week Ukraine will exchange lists with the Russians, and then there will be verification. Zelenskyy noted that he hopes that the Russian Federation will transfer the exchange lists in advance.
Speaking about the exchange of bodies of fallen soldiers, the president noted that Ukraine agreed to transfer 6,000 bodies of those killed on the Russian side, but this issue needs to be carefully studied, since only 15% of this number have been identified.
"We definitely need to take all of ours, but we already had one moment when they [the Russians] handed over bodies and there they handed over their own, also Russian, killed soldiers ... You know that at first they didn't take people from the battlefield, and then they left them, and then they seemed to collect them," the president said.
He recalled that Ukraine submitted its memorandum in electronic format five days before the meeting.