U.S. State Department’s Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker said he hopes that Russia and Ukraine will do a prisoner swap and it will strengthen trust between the two countries.
“I sincerely hope Moscow agrees to this prisoner exchange. It would be an important step to build confidence and reunite prisoners with their families. If successful, it will be the result of direct engagement between Presidents Zelensky and Putin,” Volker said on Twitter on July 16.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the situation in Donbas and the prisoner swap in a phone conversation on July 11.
It was reported on Tuesday that Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova and Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova exchanged the lists of Ukrainians and Russians held in detention facilities and in prisons in the two countries on July 16.
Vadym Prystaiko, deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine, later said the advisers of the leaders of the Normandy format countries had reached an agreement on the exchange of “a certain number” of prisoners.
