Zelenskyy on prisoner exchanges: We hope to resume by the end of 2025

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine hopes to resume prisoner exchanges with Russia by the end of the year. The head of state said this during a press conferences with a Turkish colleague, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Ankara.

"We hope to resume exchanges and return a significant number of prisoners by the end of the year. Turkey is helping us a lot in this," Zelenskyy said, personally thanking Erdoğan.

The president also said that thanks to negotiations with Turkey, there are already 2,500 Ukrainian prisoners who have been returned to their homeland or for whom a decision has been made to exchange and who are "on their way home."

Earlier, on November 15, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov announced an agreement to release 1200 Ukrainians from Russian captivity.

"We work without pauses so that Ukrainians who are to return from captivity can celebrate the New Year and Christmas holidays at home – at the family table and with their loved ones," the official reported following talks in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

• The last exchange of prisoners so far was held on October 2 – back then, Ukraine returned 205 military and civilians from Russian captivity.
• On October 23, in Ukraine was returned 1000 bodies of fallen defenders.