Zelenskyy announces a large prisoner exchange before the New Year, but Russia slows down the process

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a major exchange to take place by the end of 2025. He said this during a media interview on December 11, but noted that Russia is slowing down these processes, the LIGA.net.

The President was asked why there have been no prisoner exchanges recently. He replied that the Russians had begun to slow down these processes because they wanted general agreements.

"In my opinion, this is exactly what is happening. If we have all these processes in place, then we will return to decisions on the exchange," he said.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov had meetings with representatives of the Russian Federation on exchanges. The parties agreed that a "sufficiently large" exchange should take place before the New Year and that lists should be discussed.

But now it is the Russian side that is slowing down the exchange process, the President emphasized.

• As of November 11, the last prisoner exchange was held on October 2 – Ukraine returned 205 military and civilians from Russian captivity.
• on October 23, in Ukraine was returned 1000 bodies of fallen defenders.
• november 15, Umerov announced the release of 1200 Ukrainians from Russian captivity, and the President on November 19 expressed hope to resume exchanges by the end of 2025.