“With the participation of the Red Cross, it became possible to organize a dialogue with Kyiv on the exchange of prisoners and dead soldiers. So far, 27 such operations have been conducted,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Famin said during a briefing of military attachés of foreign embassies, according to Russian news agency Interfax.
A Russian official said on Wednesday that Kyiv and Moscow have exchanged prisoners and bodies 27 times since the armed conflict began on February 24.
“With the participation of the Red Cross, it became possible to organize a dialogue with Kyiv on the exchange of prisoners and dead soldiers. So far, 27 such operations have been conducted,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Famin said during a briefing of military attachés of foreign embassies, according to Russian news agency Interfax.
The largest exchange took place in June, when each side handed over 144 prisoners of war to the other.
Negotiations on prisoner swaps are among the last diplomatic channels between Moscow and Kyiv, as talks to end the war have all but collapsed.
It has recently been suggested that these channels be used to restart peace negotiations.
The evacuation of Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks was also agreed through these channels, Mr. Famin said. Over 3,000 people, among them hundreds of civilians, were able to flee from there. The operation “had an exclusively humanitarian character”, according to Mr. Famin.
However, a recent shelling of a facility where prisoners of war were held in eastern Ukraine killed dozens of members of the far-right Azov battalion fighting in the Mariupol steelworks until May.
Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for the bombing of this facility, in Olenivka.
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