Ukraine, pro-Russia forces start first 2020 prisoner swap

The Ukrainian government and pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine have started the first prisoner swap in 2020 as part of measures aimed at easing tensions between Kiev and Moscow.

Ukraine’s presidential office announced on Thursday that Kiev would take back 19 of its citizens, without mentioning the number of prisoners it would return.

“The current release demonstrates the effectiveness of the president’s strategy and compliance with the agreements reached during the Normandy summit in December 2019,” the office said in a statement.

In December last year, the representatives of the Kiev government and the pro-Russia forces in Ukraine agreed to carry out an exchange.

The agreement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, held their first face-to-face talk at a Paris summit in the same month and agreed to “commit to a full and comprehensive implementation” of a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by the end of December and proceed with a new withdrawal of forces from conflict zones by March 2020.

Zelensky said at the time that he expected all the 72 Ukrainian prisoners held by the pro-Russians to return home before year’s end.

Russia and Ukraine last swapped prisoners in September 2019, the first such exchange in two years.

The full release of the prisoners appears to pave the way for the restoration of relations between the two countries after a nearly five-year hiatus over the conflict.

SS