Kyiv, November 16 (QNA) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that his country is working to resume prisoner exchanges with Russia, a move that could lead to the return of 1,200 Ukrainian prisoners.
“We are also counting on the resumption of Prisoner of War exchanges, many meetings, negotiations, and calls are currently taking place to ensure this”, Zelenskyy said in a post on X platform.
Earlier, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, announced that progress had been made in the negotiations.
Umerov said that both sides agreed to reactivate the prisoner exchange agreements reached in Istanbul, which aim to secure the release of 1,200 Ukrainian soldiers.
The Istanbul Agreements refer to the prisoner exchange protocols established through Turkish mediation in 2022, which set the framework for large-scale and coordinated prisoner swaps. Since then, Russia and Ukraine have exchanged thousands of prisoners.