Ukrainian Prosecutor General shares Facebook post confirming major prisoner swap with Russia
The newly appointed Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Ruslan Riaboshapka, has shared a Facebook post by Verkhovna Rada employee Anna Islamova confirming a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.
“The exchange is complete: The sailors, Sentsov, Karpyuk, Balukh and Hryb are flying home,” Islamova wrote in the original post.
Alexey Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow, posted in his Telegram channel that the plane with released Ukrainian prisoners was scheduled to land in Kyiv at 5 AM local time.
“We have no information about the flight. I called my superiors, they do not confirm this information,” an information desk employee at Kyiv International Airport told RBC news agency.
During a press conference at the end of June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to release the Ukrainian sailors who were captured by Russia near the Kerch Strait last year. Putin and Zelensky spoke on the phone for the first time in mid July and discussed, among other things, a possible prisoner exchange.
Last week the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that prisoner exchange negotiations had reached their final stage. A source familiar with the proceedings of a meeting between Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron on August 19 reported that they had reached a preliminary agreement to go ahead with a prisoner swap.
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later confirmed that there had been communication with Kyiv and that the exchange was in the planning phase.
According to Russian media, Moscow and Kyiv had negotiated a “33 for 33” exchange which did not take into account Kirill Vyshinsky, editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti’s Ukrainian office, who was released on bail on August 28.