Over 1,200 more prisoners to be exchanged under new Istanbul agreement – Ukrainian and Russian delegations

Rustem Umierov and Vladimir Medinsky, the heads of the Ukrainian and Russian delegations at the talks in Istanbul, have announced an agreement to exchange over 1,200 prisoners of war from each side.

Source: Umierov; Medinsky; Serhii Kyslytsia, Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister; and Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesman for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry at briefings following the talks in Istanbul, broadcast by Suspilne and RIA Novosti

Quote from Umierov: "First of all, our agreement and the result of this humanitarian track include over 1,200 people. These will be exchanges conducted by our counterparts. And we will continue with further exchanges."

Details: Meanwhile, Serhii Kyslytsia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, stated that this concerns the return of POWs specifically, while civilians and children "must be brought back" and are not part of the exchanges.

Quote from Medinsky: "Continuing the prisoner exchange, we agreed that there will be another exchange of at least 1,200 POWs from each side in the near future."

Details: Medinsky stated that the Russian Federation had offered to hand over a greater number of POWs to Ukraine. 

"If they find more of ours, then this number will be higher," he said.

Medinsky also stated that Russia had offered to transfer to Ukraine a further 3,000 bodies of fallen Ukrainian servicemen.

In addition, he claimed that Russia had proposed to Kyiv to consider the issue of declaring short-term, 24- or 48-hour, "ceasefires" to retrieve those injured and the bodies of soldiers.

Meanwhile, Tykhyi noted that during the third round of talks, "the atmosphere was somewhat different from previous meetings. It was less emotional, fewer lyrical parts and more constructiveness and calm dialogue".

He also emphasised that Russia's proposal on short-term ceasefires in certain parts of the line of contact was not new and had been mentioned at the previous meeting in Istanbul. He stressed that this cannot be called a "real truce".

Quote from Tykhyi: "We also heard other ideas from Russia during previous meetings the past three or four months – ceasefires for Easter, for Victory Day. But this is not a real ceasefire. [Victory Day is a Russian holiday commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, celebrated on 9 May – ed.]

If we talk about some humanitarian pauses on small sections of the line of contact, then it should be understood that this already happens from time to time – Ukrainian and Russian commanders on the ground agree on such things to retrieve the bodies of soldiers, this is a short humanitarian pause.

But this is not a ceasefire. The Russians are trying to sell this as a ceasefire, but in our understanding, a ceasefire means stopping hostilities on land, at sea and in the air. That is what we understand by a full truce. Civilian infrastructure and residential areas must also be safe. These humanitarian pauses already happen, and they cannot be called a real ceasefire."

Background: On 23 July, Ukraine and Russia conducted the ninth stage of a prisoner exchange. Severely ill and seriously wounded soldiers returned home. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that over 1,000 Ukrainians had been brought home during all stages of the recent Istanbul agreements.

Background: 

• On the evening of 23 July, the third round of peace talks between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations was held in Istanbul, Türkiye.
• Ukraine proposed holding a leaders' meeting by the end of August that would be attended by Turkish President Recep Erdoğan and US President Donald Trump.
• Meanwhile, Medinsky declared that the positions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the memoranda are "quite far from each other."

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