Ukraine and Russia agree in Istanbul to continue prisoner exchanges

During a meeting on Wednesday, July 23, in Istanbul, Ukraine and Russia agreed to continue exchanging prisoners. This was announced at briefing following the talks by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov.

"First of all, our agreement and the result is the humanitarian track. This is more than 1200 people. These will be the exchanges implemented by our colleagues. And we will continue our further exchanges," Umerov said.

At the same time, the representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in the Security and Defense Sector, Yuriy Kovbasa, clarified that the parties agreed to continue working at the current level.

"In addition, we drew the attention of the Russian side to the prisoners of war who have been in captivity for more than three years," he said.

A member of the Ukrainian delegation clarified that Russia had agreed to return these people. In particular, it was about young people and wounded soldiers.

"We discussed separately the possibility and agreed by both sides to conduct regular sanitary exchanges of prisoners of war," Kovbasa said, adding that it was about the wounded and sick.

• On the evening of July 23, another round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia started in Istanbul. The Ukrainian delegation was headed by Umerov.
• Russians spread a fake about a "secret meeting" between Umerov and the head of the Russian delegation, Medinsky.
• Later, the Ukrainian delegation came out to journalists, confirming the end of the meeting.