Ukraine and Russia Discuss Upcoming "All-For-All" Prisoner Exchange

01 March 2020 18:25

Andriy Yermak (L), the newly appointed Chief of Staff to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Dmitry Kozak, the newly appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to Russian President Vladimir Putin, have met in Minsk, Belarus.EPA

The representatives of presidential offices in Ukraine and Russia have discussed questions pertaining the prisoner exchange that was agreed during the Normandy Format meeting in Paris last December.

Andriy Yermak, the newly appointed Chief of Staff to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Dmitry Kozak, the newly appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to Russian President Vladimir Putin, have met in Minsk.

According to Ukraine's presidential office's Telegram channel, Yermak stated that he would like to carry out the all-for-all exchange this March. Both parts agreed that it is important to implement the exchange in light of the agreements made during the Paris meeting.

This comes two weeks after the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko announced that the Ukraine-Russia prisoner swap would take place before the next Normandy Format meeting, which is scheduled to take place in April 2020.

Back then, Prystaiko said to news agency Interfax-Ukraine that the exchange would be "practically" all-for-all.

"We're talking about a significant number of people. The President (of Ukraine -ed.) said that nearly 200 people are planned for the exchange, that's a lot," the foreign minister said.