President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Photo: t.me/V_Zelenskyy_official
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia has not yet handed over the full lists for a large exchange of prisoners of war in the 1000-for-1000 format agreed during the talks in Istanbul. He said this in his evening video address.
“Today and yesterday, I spoke with Defence Minister Umerov, with the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine Budanov, with the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Malyuk – Ukraine continues to do everything possible to ensure the release of our prisoners and the return of our Ukrainian fallen soldiers. Unfortunately, we still do not have complete lists from Russia for a thousand people plus – as we agreed in Istanbul,” the head of state said.
According to Zelenskyy, Moscow is once again trying to use even a purely humanitarian issue as an element of a political and information game: “The Russian side, as always, in its spirit, is trying to play some kind of dirty political and information game in these issues.”
The President stressed the importance of achieving real results: “It is important for people to return home. We believe that we will be able to continue the exchange track. And we are doing everything for this.”
At the same time, he warned that if Russia does not comply with even these humanitarian agreements, it could seriously undermine the credibility of the entire architecture of international diplomatic efforts, including those supported by the United States.
