لماذا أرجأت أوكرانيا عملية تبادل الأسرى مع روسيا ؟

Russia announced that Ukraine has postponed the exchange of hundreds of prisoners of war from both sides and the recovery of the bodies of fallen soldiers, which both parties had agreed upon during peace talks held in Istanbul earlier this week.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky stated on social media that "the Ukrainian side unexpectedly postponed, for an indefinite period, the transfer of the bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war."

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced at the end of the talks that Kyiv and Moscow had agreed during the negotiations to exchange all prisoners of war who are seriously injured or under the age of 25, in addition to about 6,000 bodies of soldiers killed from each side.

Umerov said: "We agreed to exchange prisoners of war who are seriously injured and sick, on a basis of everyone for everyone." The second category includes young soldiers aged between 18 and 25... We also agreed that each side would return 6,000 bodies of soldiers who fell in battle."

Kyiv had proposed to Moscow to hold a new round of talks between June 20 and 30. It considered that "this is necessary to advance the negotiation process."

Meanwhile, the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Sergey Kyslytsya, revealed that Russia rejected Kyiv's offer for an unconditional ceasefire during the direct talks in Istanbul. Kyslytsya added during a press conference following the talks that the Russian side continued to reject the proposal for an unconditional ceasefire.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky stated that his country proposed to Ukraine a partial ceasefire for two or three days in certain areas of the front during the Istanbul talks.