“We are ready to change even tomorrow.” Ukraine and Russia exchanged bodies of the dead

Channel One’s war correspondent Irina Kuksenkova said that Moscow and Kiev exchanged the bodies of dead soldiers according to the “160 for 160” plan.

“The bodies of the dead were exchanged between Russia and Ukraine. Changed from 160 to 160. The change took place on the line of contact in the Zaporozhye region, ”the journalist wrote Telegram.

Later, Kuksenkova announced that the Russian side delivered the bodies of the dead on the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.

The Azovstal lands were completely under Russian control on 20 May. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered, they held the territory of the enterprise for almost three months.

On May 31, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the Russian army found a booby-trapped van with the bodies of 152 soldiers in Azovstal. According to him, the captured fighters of the Azov battalion said during the interrogations that the bodies were exhumed directly by order of Kiev.

Confirmation from Kiev

The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine confirmed the fact of exchange with the dead with the Russian Federation.

“On June 2, on the front line in the Zaporozhye region, there was an exchange of bodies of the dead between Ukraine and Russia. According to the 160 formula, an agreement has been reached for 160 in the swap.”

The Russian side did not officially confirm or deny information about the exchange of bodies.

prisoner exchange

23 May President Volodymyr Zelensky declarationHe said Ukraine is ready to exchange prisoners “even tomorrow” and that the process should be intensified. “We don’t need the Russian army, we just need ours. We are ready to change even tomorrow and this change is very important.”

The Ukrainian president also proposed to involve as many countries as possible in the exchange process, for example, Switzerland, Israel and the UN, as well as other states. According to Zelensky, several thousand Russian soldiers are in captivity on the Ukrainian side.

On the same day, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, emphasized that the exchange of prisoners with Ukraine is constantly going on “one way or another.” “This is important to us – it’s clear for what reasons,” said the Kremlin.

May 27 Vladimir Putin spent Telephone conversation with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. According to the Chancellor, Putin promised to “re-discuss more actively” the issue of the exchange of prisoners and the dead. This issue was not mentioned in the news about the phone call published on the Kremlin’s website.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres in early June called To the rapid exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine. “The UN was involved in the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal. The UN was not directly involved in the evacuation of the army because that is not our mandate. What we insisted on was the need for a prisoner exchange as soon as possible in order to somehow solve this problem.”