After more than three years of war since Russia invaded Ukraine, Thousands of prisoners remain arrested In both countries, although the exact number is unknown.
As soon as a great exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine ended, Trump wrote in his social truth network. Congratulations to both sides for this negotiation. Could this lead to something big ???he added.
Neither Moscow nor kyiv immediately confirmed these statements.
However, a senior official with knowledge of the matter declared AFP that “The exchange itself still did not take place” and that “the process is ongoing.”
This type of exchange, very delicate between two countries at war, It usually keeps secret until it is completedwhich can take several hours.
Last week, during negotiations in Türkiye, Russia and Ukraine agreed exchange a thousand hostages of each side.
These were the first direct conversations among countries since 2022.
We have confirmation that About 10,000 people are in Russian captivitythe Ukrainian commissioner for missing persons, Artur Dobroserdov.
Russia provides Very little information about Ukrainian captives And each exchange is full of surprises, a senior Ukrainian official was told AFP on anonymity.
In almost all exchanges there are people that nobody knew anything, he said. Sometimes they return to people who were in the Lists of missing or who considered themselves dead.
The question of war prisoners is one of the few areas in which kyiv and Moscow have occasionally achieved agreements since the beginning of the Russian invasion, thus producing limited exchanges regularly.
It is also an especially painful issue in both countries, where thousands of families expect distress news from their disappeared loved ones.
New negotiations?
Ukraine and Russia They accuse mutually of violating the Geneva Convention about the treatment of prisoners of war.
Russia regularly organizes judgments against prisoners of war Ukrainians, which contravenes international law.
They are also denounced regularly Torture cases and several captives – both military as civilians – have died in detention.
The NGO Amnesty International denounced the “Systematic torture and the deprivation of medical care” To Ukrainian prisoners in Russia in a report published in March.
Several Ukrainian exprisioneros affirmed AFP that they were tortured during their captivity.
Russia recently returned the body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchina, who died in captivity. According to journalistic investigation, he had been tortured and He lacked some organs of the body.
During his electoral campaign, Trump insisted that would end the fighting.
For several weeks, the American leader tries to achieve a stop, while warning that he will retire from the process if progress is not reached.
After negotiations in Istanbul, the possibility of a second meeting is subject to intense speculation, although it has not been formally confirmed.
Moscow said that any continuation of the conversations with kyiv can only occur after the exchange of prisoners.
According to Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, kyiv “Study all possibilities” Regarding the place to celebrate a new bilateral meeting with the Russians.
Pope Leo XIV, United States and Italy raised the possibility of being carried out in the Vatican.
However, the head of Russian diplomacy, Serguéi Lavrov, seemed to close the door to that option, stating that it would not be “Very elegant that orthodox countries discuss on Catholic soil issues related to the elimination of deep causes ”of the conflict in Ukraine