​​Ukraine Pushes Forward on “1000-for-1000” Prisoner Exchange Deal With Russia

Ukraine has completed its preparatory work and is urging Russia to speed up implementation of the agreed “1000-for-1000” prisoner exchange, according to Ukraine’s senior officials, The Gaze reports.

Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, confirmed that Ukraine had submitted its list of individuals for the proposed mass exchange and expects Russia to accelerate the process.

“Regarding the 1000-for-1000 exchange, Ukraine has done its part of the preparatory work. Russia should speed up on this,” Yermak stated.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday held a high-level meeting dedicated to finalizing the exchange and confirmed that work is ongoing to verify the status of every individual named in the Russian list.

“The agreement to release 1,000 of our people from Russian captivity was perhaps the only real outcome of the talks in Turkey. We are working to make sure this result is delivered,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

“There were briefings on contacts with the Russians (…). We are verifying the details of every individual submitted in the Russian list,” he added.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia had provided Ukraine with its list of prisoners and later received a reciprocal list from Kyiv.

As The Gaze previously reported, during the talks in Istanbul, Ukraine and Russia discussed the ceasefire and humanitarian issues, as well as a possible meeting at the level of leaders. In particular, they agreed to exchange prisoners in the format of "1000 for 1000".