Prisoner swap and leader-level meeting: Ukraine's defence minister reports on results of talks with Russia
Following a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul on Monday 2 June, the parties have reached an agreement on the next prisoner exchange of certain categories of military personnel.
Source: Ukraine's Defence Minister Rustem Umierov, who heads the Ukrainian delegation, at a briefing, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Umierov noted that Monday's meeting was the first time that Ukraine had seen Russia's proposals for a ceasefire and an end to the war. Moscow has still not responded to Ukraine's proposals.
"Our teams will have a week to review the documents, after which we will be able to coordinate next steps," he said.
The defence minister also said that the parties have agreed to "focus on specific categories rather than numbers" regarding the release of prisoners of war.
"We have agreed on an all-for-all exchange of seriously wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war. The second category is young soldiers between the ages of 18 and 25, all-for-all as well. We have also agreed on a 6,000-for-6,000 exchange of bodies of fallen soldiers," he said.
Umierov confirmed that Ukraine had given Russia a list of several hundred Ukrainian children who had been deported to the Russian Federation and was waiting for Moscow to take action on this.
Another item on the agenda was organising a meeting at the leadership level, possibly involving other leaders, such as the US president.
"We believe that further work between the delegations makes sense if it is aimed at preparing a meeting between state leaders. We have proposed to the Russian side to hold a meeting at the level of leaders by the end of this month, from 20 to 30 June. This is very important for the negotiation process," Umierov added.
Background:
The meeting between the delegations of Ukraine and the Russian Federation, which lasted for just over an hour, was the second after the one held on 16 May.
Before the negotiations with the Russians, Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Serhii Kyslytsia and a member of the Ukrainian delegation Oleksandr Bevz met with representatives of Ukraine's European partners – Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
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