Moscow would be ready to exchange the 24 Ukrainian sailors seized near the Kerch Strait for Russian nationals kept in Ukrainian jails, the pro-Kremlin Russian newspaper Izvestia reported on Jan. 11, quoting its sources.
The 24 Ukrainian sailors were heading in three navy vessels from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea, when Russian FSB patrol boats captured them near Russian-occupied Crimea, an event that sparked tensions and prompted Ukraine to announce a month-long period of martial law in 10 of its oblasts.
The Ukrainian sailors were later sent to Moscow, and 21 of them are now being kept in Lefortovo detention center. Three of them, wounded during their capture, are being kept in the hospital wing of the Matrosskaya Tishyna detention center.
While Ukraine calls the sailors prisoners of war, Russia wants to prosecute them as civilian violators of its border, and says they have to undergo trial before any exchange.
After that, Kremlin would be ready to exchange them for Russian nationals, hundreds of whom are being kept in Ukraine.
“There are many Russians in Ukrainian jails whom we have to release,” a senior Russian diplomatic source told Izvestia.
But the source added that this is unlikely to happen before the presidential elections in Ukraine, scheduled for March-April, because Russia doesn’t want to give any electoral advantage to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is seeking reelection.
The number of Russians imprisoned in Ukraine remains disputed.
Ukrainian peace negotiators in Minsk earlier prepared a list with 23 names of Russians who were captured and imprisoned for waging war against Ukraine. But Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said in December that Ukraine has about 300 sentenced people that could be offered to Moscow for exchange for the captive sailors.
One of the imprisoned Russians, Aleksey Sedikov, who was captured while fighting against Ukraine’s army in Luhansk Oblast, underwent surgery in December paid for by Ukraine’s government. Sedikov is one of those Ukraine plans to exchange.
Human rights activists at the Media Initiative for Human Rights say they are preparing a complete list of imprisoned Russians. But they also note there are some 70 other Ukrainians who have been kept in prisons in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea for years.
There are also more than 100 Ukrainians, military and civilians, who are currently in jail in the Russian-controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, who have little hope of being exchanged soon, activists say.
