War in Ukraine: Ukraine and Russia agree on prisoner exchange

Ukraine and Russia have not come closer to a ceasefire in their second short negotiation round in Istanbul. Both sides agreed in the approximately one -hour meeting but on an exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and soldiers’ corpses. This could be the greatest since the beginning of the Russian attack war, after each page had released 1,000 prisoners in a first round of negotiations in a first round of negotiations. This time, according to Russian information, it should be at least as many again.

According to the Ukrainian Defense Minister and negotiator Rustem Umjerow, the exchange should include the following groups:

– seriously injured and seriously ill prisoners of war

– Young soldiers between the ages of 18 and 25

– Symptoms killed.

In the first two categories, the principle “All against everyone” applies. The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinski, confirmed the agreement on a corresponding exchange of prisoners. According to him, more than 1,000 prisoners of war could also be replaced. The return of the fallen soldiers are 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

To do this, there should be a short ceasefire of two or three days on different front sections so that both sides could recover their dead. “This is now worked out by our military and Ukrainian experts,” said Medinski. He announced further details of the negotiations in Istanbul:

– Russia received a list of 339 children from Ukraine, which are now to be brought together with their parents or prior rounds.

– Moscow also handed over a memorandum in two parts for a ceasefire and for the end of the war that Kiev now wants to check – none of the two sides gave.

The discussion in Istanbul has been the second since mid -May. Before that, the warring parties last spoke to each other in 2022 after the Moscow invasion of Moscow. The peace negotiations failed at the time.

Another round of talks announced

According to its negotiator Umjerow, the Ukraine also proposed the Russian to the Russen as an appointment for follow -up talks. And she again called for a meeting at the highest level: “All key questions can only be solved at the top of the leadership,” said Umjerow. The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj had asked Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin for a meeting and suggested that US President Donald Trump and Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan could also take part.

The central demand of Ukraine before the start of the talks was the enforcement of an unconditional ceasefire for 30 days as an outcome for negotiations to solve the conflict as a whole. The Russian negotiator Medinski said that the Moscow Memorandum contains various variants of a ceasefire, but it did not become more specific.

However, it is known that Russia places two conditions as a minimum requirement for an ceasefire. In this way, Ukraine should forego western arms deliveries and set mobilization. Moscow wants to prevent Kiev from using a fire break to collect strength in the war.

Ukraine calls for return “kidnapped children”

In their view, the list of children handed over by Ukraine to Russia is delayed minors. “It is about hundreds of children who deported Russia illegally, inevitably relocated or captured in the temporarily occupied areas,” wrote the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andrij Jermak, at Telegram.

According to earlier information from Kyiv, Moscow had “deteriorated” more than 19,500 Ukrainian minors from the conquered areas. More than 1,000 were also able to return to Ukraine through international mediation. Over 160 children who have been deprived of the Ukrainian perspective were partly back with their legal representatives in Germany.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Putin and the Russian children’s representative Maria Lwowa-Belowa because of the allegation of the abduction of Ukrainian children. With a view to the 339 names now submitted by Kiev, Medinski said that Ukraine had exaggerated the numbers for years and made it a show for compassionate Europeans.

“We are talking about dozens of children and these children have not been kidnapped,” said Medinski. The children were saved from the combat area. “And we are looking for the parents. And when the parents appear, we bring them back.”

Meeting was ahead of the attacks

The Turkish President Erdogan called the meeting “very, very great” and said: “My greatest wish is to bring both Mr. Wladimir Putin and Selenskyj together in Istanbul or Ankara – and also put Mr. Trump at your side.” The fact that the meeting “despite yesterday’s incident” took place is a success in itself.

Shortly before the meeting in Istanbul, both warring parties had massively expanded their mutual attacks – with victims and damage on both sides. Ukraine performed a spectacular blow against Russia’s strategic bomber fleet. The Moscow reaction to the loss of a larger number of aircraft is still pending. According to its own statements, the Ukrainian secret service smuggled many small drones to Russia and had them attacked from trucks near Russian military airfields.