Russia says Ukraine unexpectedly postponed exchange of prisoners

Ukraine has not accepted the bodies of its fallen troops which Russia offered to return, providing “strange reasons” for its decision, according to Moscow’s lead negotiator in the peace talks with Kiev, Vladimir Medinsky, RT reported. 

Russia was supposed to repatriate the remains of over 6,000 slain Ukrainian soldiers, an agreement reached during the talks in Istanbul, and both sides had also agreed to exchange 1,200 prisoners each, according to RT. 

“The first batch of frozen remains of 1,212 Ukrainian soldiers has already arrived in refrigerated trucks at the exchange area” on the border between the two countries, he said, according to RT.  “The rest are on their way,” the negotiator added.

Kiev has also been handed a list of 640 heavily wounded and younger prisoners held by Moscow so that they may be exchanged as well, according to Medinsky.

“The contact group of the Russian Ministry of Defense is on the border with Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian side unexpectedly postponed both the acceptance of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war for an indefinite period,” he wrote.

According to the Russian negotiator, the Ukrainian team “did not even arrive at the exchange site.” The reasons Kiev provided to justify its decision “are various, and rather strange,” he said without elaborating.

“We call on Kiev to strictly adhere to the schedule and all agreements that had been reached, and to immediately begin the exchange” so that the wounded could return home and the dead receive a proper burial, Medinsky said.